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(meteorobs) Re:TX/NM meteor



I had some e-mail correspondence about the El Paso affair with a friend
knowledgable about both astronomy and military affairs.  He gave permission
to post his responses to some of the lengthy meteorobs discussion on this
event.  In the first paragraph Eglin is a base in north Florida and St.
Petersburg halfway down the west coast of Florida.


>Thanks for the info.  The first writer quoted was hung up on the idea 
>that a reentering missile shouldn't leave much of a train/contrail, but 
>wouldn't that depend on the the chemical makeup of the ablation cone?  
>The second writer referred to gave us a good indication that it really 
>was some kind of BMD test, maybe gone a little off course, since the 
>tracking units were evidently active.  Also, the low pitched sound 
>coming shortly after the burst was not due to the "bolide" coming down 
>or its explosion but rather, the interceptor going up, which had left 
>earlier!  BMD interceptors are extremely high acceleration, high 
>velocity things, and from some distance the "foghorn" sound is about 
>what you'd expect.  For my part the tipoff is NORAD's interest.  I 
>worked within NORAD for three years as an Air Surveillance Officer 
>(60's), and I never knew them to give a hoot about natural meteors or 
>send the army reserves looking for rock fragments!  They do perk up when 
>tracking symbologies get crossed or a missile test goes wild, like the 
>Bomarc from Eglin that went very wide of its intended path and nearly 
>made it to St. Petersburg, falling into the gulf to entertain the 
>Redington Beach tourists!!
>
>All of this may be some saber rattling because of Russia's Ural tunnel 
>military complex and the recent "seismic event" from the big island 
>Novaya Zemlya, no doubt a nuclear test.  Incidentally, my gut intuition 
>is that the Ural thing is at least in part a very serious BMD project, 
>which makes sense in view of our nuclear downscaling and supposed lack 
>of a meaningful BMD system.  We're opened up for an end-run (check out 
>Caspar Weinberger's recent book "The Next War", especially the Russia 
>scenario).  Russia has not ratified the nuclear treaty, is still armed 
>to the teeth with maybe 25,000 warheads, and could beat us outright if 
>she fielded a really good BMD system.  As I said, maybe saber rattling 
>is going on here.  Don't overlook that we also tested a Star Wars laser 
>satellite killer just a few days ago.  
>
>But somehow I feel that we're bluffing about realities - if this really 
>is saber rattling - and that's scary.  Never underestimate the Russians. 
> I think it was Lenin who said "When weak, feign strength; when strong, 
>feign weakness."  From their apparent economy and their apparent 
>troubles with Mir, you'd think they were even pathetic, but are these 
>things really feignings?  Deceptions?  Read Anatolyi Golitsyn's book 
>"New Lies For Old", especially the last half of the last chapter.  You 
>will not sleep well after doing that!!
>
>Humpff!  Some "bolide"!
>
>                                       Rick
>


From one account came this description:

>>     Capt. Larry Wilkins of the El Paso
>>County Sheriff's Office said metal-
>>lic flakes were floating in the air
>>like dry snowflakes in parts of the
>>county after the incident.
>>     "I personally drove through some
>>of it," he said. "It was like small
>>pieces of aluminum foil, but very
>>light."


Then Rick's response to the above follows :



>                                   October 28, 1997
>
>Norman,
>
>     It's okay to quote me.  The "metal flake" report doesn't
>support a meteoric origin at all!  I don't care that the
>spokesman for White Sands denied a missile test.  I would imagine
>they do surreptitious stuff out there all the time, things they
>can't talk about.  The earlier writer was right in saying
>"meteors" over White Sands should be treated with some
>skepticism.  
>
>     A BMD intercept could have happened further up, before the
>reentering craft became visible.  It is what I had in mind about
>the origin of the odd sound.  Maybe the witness wasn't looking in
>the right direction when an interceptor went up (earlier)?  If it
>were a Brilliant Pebbles warhead, a significant explosive charge
>would not be involved, either.  The thing kills by shotgunning
>the target with small, high velocity masses.
>
>     I just learned from an issue of the NOME NUGGET received
>today that there was also a bright (night-time) meteor in Alaska
>in a very remote area near (I believe) Bethel, which is south of
>Nome on the southwest peninsula.  It shook the locals up (mostly
>Eskimos).  My new flatbed scanner isn't hooked up yet, but I'll
>try to use the OCR to get a text conversion and e-mail it to you. 
>It happened a few days ago, and as in the El Paso case, the
>National Guard went out looking.  Maybe they just don't have
>anything better to do!  Ha!  The Alaskan object seemed more like
>a regular bolide.
>
>    A  few years back the Russians bracketed Hawaii in an ICBM
>test, intentionally landing an inert warhead cone only 200 miles
>west of the island chain.  Surely they are not doing something
>like that.
>
>
>                                      Sincerely,
>
>                                      Rick
>

Rick's posts about the Alaska meteor will go in a separate post.

Norman