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(meteorobs) NZ Daylight Bolide July 7 1999
FROM GRAHAM W. WOLF:- NEW ZEALAND FIREBALL NETWORK (NZFN)
Greetings from New Zealand!
Apologies for last evening's transmission, which contained some
(horrrific) typo's!
Corrections follow....
should have read +/- 5 KM in X AXIS
" "sonic delay timing within 20KM of ground zero
the mis-spellings in my previous transmission, should be obvious.
UPDATE ON SITUATION!
Horizon altitude of 45 degrees quoted by observer at Stratford is highly
suspect and a figure of 65-70 degrees horizon altitude, since the
hypocentre is clearly within 20km of this location.... is more
realistic.
THEREFORE... recalculations give the following "better" co-ordinates for
the meteor-burst hypocentre over New Zealand.... Recall, I have only 4
reasonable data points, all well south of the hypocentre.... these took
some 5 days to excrutiatingly obtain from Carter Observatory, and
numerous all-day visiits, to obtain information at the proverbial rate
of 1 syllable/MYr!
LATRST PERSONAL HYPOCENTRE CALCULATION IS NOW (as of 23h UT 11 July)
LAT 39.5 deg SOUTH +/- 0.2
LONG 174.5 " EAST +/- 0.2
h= 35-40km.
~ 4 1/2 minutes on a CASIO FX-82 Calculator
This places the hypocentre some 25km +/-5 NE of the township of hawera.
I contacted Seismologist Dr Terry Shore at 12 July, 19h UT, and was
informed that his 9 seismology stations administered by IGNS, have all
obtained sonic "images", which when triangulated, give an altitude of
37km, some 25km NE of Hawera, with similar error bars to my own.
I have obtained, privately, additional verbal eyewitness reports, from
the greater Wellington region, which indicate that the object (as seen
from Wellington, some 250km SE from the hypocentre) fell within 10
degrees, probably neaer 5 degrees from the vertical. This would explain
the high end-point due to catastrophic decelleration. (Most of the two
dozen events or so, that I have investigated for IMO/FIDAC including
about 6 of my own in the last 15 years, usaully have hypocentres in the
15-25km altitude range). I noted the darkness (personally) of the
detonation cloud at 10 to 12 on the 20 point WESTON STEP-WEDGE
Photographic densitometry scale, which is similar in darkness to the
boilde I observed and photographed in daylight over Mt Bruce, Wairarapa
on April 25, (ANZAC DAY) 1996.... see my 1996 IMC Proceedings
(Wolf/McBeath).
I also have a Feb 1998 object,detonating some 100-150km SE of Wellington
off Cook Strait, that I heard (nearer WESTON STEP-WEDGE 16 +/- 1 ) but
did not see pass over... pending publication... shades of last week's
event!
I also recall a similar LATE EVENING event (with an apparently similar
ground track azimuth) over Tongaporutu (some 60 NE of last week's
hypocentre) in my data files. I am frantically trying to obtain some
ZENITH passage observations that will enable me to more accurately
establish a correct ground-track azimuth, and more sonic delay data from
Noth and East of the hypocentre... see next paragraph.
I have finally made contact with Dr Ian Griffith:- CEO of the Auckland
Obsdervatory, and we are now sharing data, and with Ian's 50 or so
widely-dispersed data points and sonic delay data, we hope to improve
the error bars, considerably.I am in the process of supplying Ian (a
really warm, wonderfully co-operative chap) with appropriate contact
e-mails of FIDAC, IMO, NAMN Ceplecha, Baggaley, Steel, etc, so that he
can better cope with any subsequent events. Poor Ian has never had to
deal with something like this, and is feeling physically trashed as I
am.... (typically 30 minute sleeps on trains etc.... I have had some 6
hours sleep in last 7 days, and will be increasing this soon, namely
going into a voluntary "coma" for a couple of days.
The amount of BOVINE EXCREMENT coming from the NZ media in the last week
over this meteor event is sufficient to grow abour 100 square MPc of 20m
high cabbages! It's been a perssonal ongoing lifetime battle with the
media, trying to tell them what they need to KNOW, and not what they
want to HEAR!
I have offered to convert all of Ian's public sightings onto standard
FIDAC Forms, and to prepare a preliminary paper for the forthcoming 1999
IMC with a full attribution to Ian's team, and any public observers, who
sent in data.. that may take up to about 120 hours of my time... but the
astronomical community deserves no less from me.
Ian and Terry both confirm that a classical double-peak image of the
detonation... lasting about 1.5s, has been obtained by DoD. I heard the
double bang (with a 0.2 -0.3s estimated gap) at about 65dBa +/-5, at
Wainuiomata, and looked to the North, for a possible cumulonimbus
thunderhead on the distant horizon near Wanganui.... about 1 nano-second
later, warning lights went off in my head!
Will update on any progress. Thanks to anyone who has replied to my
earlier message.
Have never met so many "media-pedestal builders", since last year's
Leonid burst in this country, Hale-Bopp, Hyakutake, Halley etc....oh...
the astropolotics and ego-grinders!!!! Thank goodness for people like
Ian Griffith and Terery Webb.... Carter Observatory are still claiming a
hypocentre near Wanganui, which is some 80km SE of where WE GET OUR
HYPOCENTRE... QED.
May send a brief "preliminary" summary (with full attribution) to SKY &
TELRESCOPE once fuller "picture is known and error bars approach minimum
possible etc. That will still be a few weeks away.
Would someone out there please tell CHICKEN LITTLE that the sky did NOT
fall on her head, and kindly inform that idiot NOSTRADAMUS, that he has
until the end of the month to destroy the world!
Replies/comments/suggestions/anecdotal updates to above e-mail address
address, or... if you wish
grahamwwolf@hotmail.com.
Kind regards to all you meteor workers out there!
BOLIDE BOLIDE... GO AWAY, SO [WOLGR], CAN SET SOME #!!!!#$$&##@!!!!
SLEEP TODAY!
QUESTION.... What's the difference between a COSMOLOGIST and a METEOR
ASTRONOMER?????
METEOR ASTRONOMERS HAVE SMALLER "BIG BANGS" THAN THE COSMOLOGISTS, BUT
OURS ARE MUCH MORE REGULAR!!!
Ok.... I'm out of here... have a nice day, all.
ALL BLACKS THRASHED THE SPRINGBOCKS AT DUNEDIN LAST WEEKEND, 28 ZIP...
Who would want to play Rugby Union against New Zealand!!!
Graham W. Wolf [WOLGR]
NEW ZEALAND FIREBALL NETWORK
(Te Tokanui Atea Hononga O Aotearoa)
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