awesome video of fireball over New Mexico by Tom Ashcraft

[Stephen Guerin]

Great video, Tom! Given your spherical lens, it would be great to get  
some of the historical footage running in the Joe Dean's Dome at SF_X  
and the new dome out at IAIA.

-Stephen

------------

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Fireball-seen-over-Santa-Fe-likely-a-meteor-

A bright, "significant" fireball seen passing near Santa Fe and Pecos  
on Tuesday night was likely a meteor, according to an Eldorado  
astronomer who captured the event on a special video camera.

"I was out in my observatory," said Thomas Ashcraft. "I heard what I  
thought was thunder and assumed it was thunder."

But there were no clouds in the sky. Then Ashcraft received a call  
from a fellow meteor watcher in El Paso who had caught the fireball on  
video. Ashcraft hurried inside and rewound the video on the special  
Sky Sentinel camera on loan to him from Sandia National Laboratories.  
"I saw I had it pretty well," he said.

The fireball passed over New Mexico at 9:01:27 p.m. It was visible for  
23 seconds.

"That's rare. That's a very long time to see one," Ashcraft said.  
"This was a slow-burning fireball."

John Perez was driving on Rodeo Road near Santa Fe Place mall when he  
saw the flash of red. "I saw a red light in the sky going toward  
Pecos," said Perez, an amateur backyard star watcher. "It looked like  
it was going straight down."

He thought it might be remnants of a meteor shower he saw a couple of  
weeks ago.

On Ashcraft's video, the fireball can be seen passing by the moon.

The bright flash of light traveling across the sky, and what some  
described as a "loud explosion" soon after, were witnessed by several  
people in Santa Fe, Pecos, Ocate and elsewhere in the state. Ashcraft  
said the fireball's trajectory was from somewhere south of Albuquerque  
and appeared to end between Taos and Ocate.

Facebook users posted comments about seeing the bright light and  
hearing an explosion. Someone in Ocate left an anonymous message at  
The New Mexican saying a UFO had been spotted near the village in  
Eastern New Mexico.

Ashcraft is among dozens of volunteer fireball watchers who are  
participating in the Sky Sentinel program through Sandia. Most are in  
North America, but a handful are participating in Mexico, Ireland and  
Russia, according to Dale Clayton Jackson, the program coordinator.

Jackson said the volunteers provide vital data about objects entering  
the Earth's atmosphere. "We need a wider geographic area and more  
observations to get more meaningful statistics on how many objects  
enter the atmosphere, how many strike the earth and how many threaten  
satellites," Jackson said.

NASA uses the information to figure out how to protect astronauts from  
debris and meteors striking spacecraft.

Jackson said last night's meteor was a significant fireball. Sandia's  
Sentinel camera also captured the event.

Ashcraft said a meteor's brightness is indicative of size and is  
measured against the moon's light. The full moon is Minus 13. "This  
was a Minus 11 or Minus 12 fireball," Ashcraft said.

If the meteor landed somewhere before burning up, it becomes a  
meteorite. "But it is hard to say yet if it made landfall," Ashcraft  
said.

He said fireballs of this size and brightness are rare. "A large event  
like this only happens once or twice or three times a year over the  
same location," said Ashcraft, who operates the video camera nightly  
and reports data back to Sandia.

Certainly sightings of UFOs are more frequent in the Land of  
Enchantment. According to the National UFO Reporting Center, New  
Mexico residents have reported 642 instances of strange, unidentified  
aerial lights and shapes dating back to at least the mid-1990s. The  
latest report out of Santa Fe was on May 26, when someone reported  
seeing two gold "starlike" objects moving in a staggered formation  
over the Jemez Mountains just before noon, according to the Center's  
website.

The most recent fireball reported to the center was spotted March 3  
over Rio Rancho and lasted 10 minutes, according to the poster.

Ashcraft urges anyone who captured an image of the fireball on film or  
video to send him a copy. If he can get more images from other  
locations, he can triangulate the location of the falling meteor. He  
can be contacted at [hidden email].


============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

[Stephen Thompson]

  Missing the last "dash" after the word meteor in the actual "link"
It is showing in the link-label.

Otherwise backup the link to the "local news" portion and select the
video from the newspaper's
page.

Nice view of the meteor.

Steph T


On 9/23/2010 2:29 AM, Stephen Guerin wrote:

> Great video, Tom! Given your spherical lens, it would be great to get
> some of the historical footage running in the Joe Dean's Dome at SF_X
> and the new dome out at IAIA.
>
> -Stephen
>
> ------------
>
> http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Fireball-seen-over-Santa-Fe-likely-a-meteor- 
>
>
> A bright, "significant" fireball seen passing near Santa Fe and Pecos
> on Tuesday night was likely a meteor, according to an Eldorado
> astronomer who captured the event on a special video camera.
>
> "I was out in my observatory," said Thomas Ashcraft. "I heard what I
> thought was thunder and assumed it was thunder."
>
> But there were no clouds in the sky. Then Ashcraft received a call
> from a fellow meteor watcher in El Paso who had caught the fireball on
> video. Ashcraft hurried inside and rewound the video on the special
> Sky Sentinel camera on loan to him from Sandia National Laboratories.
> "I saw I had it pretty well," he said.
>
> The fireball passed over New Mexico at 9:01:27 p.m. It was visible for
> 23 seconds.
>
> "That's rare. That's a very long time to see one," Ashcraft said.
> "This was a slow-burning fireball."
>
> John Perez was driving on Rodeo Road near Santa Fe Place mall when he
> saw the flash of red. "I saw a red light in the sky going toward
> Pecos," said Perez, an amateur backyard star watcher. "It looked like
> it was going straight down."
>
> He thought it might be remnants of a meteor shower he saw a couple of
> weeks ago.
>
> On Ashcraft's video, the fireball can be seen passing by the moon.
>
> The bright flash of light traveling across the sky, and what some
> described as a "loud explosion" soon after, were witnessed by several
> people in Santa Fe, Pecos, Ocate and elsewhere in the state. Ashcraft
> said the fireball's trajectory was from somewhere south of Albuquerque
> and appeared to end between Taos and Ocate.
>
> Facebook users posted comments about seeing the bright light and
> hearing an explosion. Someone in Ocate left an anonymous message at
> The New Mexican saying a UFO had been spotted near the village in
> Eastern New Mexico.
>
> Ashcraft is among dozens of volunteer fireball watchers who are
> participating in the Sky Sentinel program through Sandia. Most are in
> North America, but a handful are participating in Mexico, Ireland and
> Russia, according to Dale Clayton Jackson, the program coordinator.
>
> Jackson said the volunteers provide vital data about objects entering
> the Earth's atmosphere. "We need a wider geographic area and more
> observations to get more meaningful statistics on how many objects
> enter the atmosphere, how many strike the earth and how many threaten
> satellites," Jackson said.
>
> NASA uses the information to figure out how to protect astronauts from
> debris and meteors striking spacecraft.
>
> Jackson said last night's meteor was a significant fireball. Sandia's
> Sentinel camera also captured the event.
>
> Ashcraft said a meteor's brightness is indicative of size and is
> measured against the moon's light. The full moon is Minus 13. "This
> was a Minus 11 or Minus 12 fireball," Ashcraft said.
>
> If the meteor landed somewhere before burning up, it becomes a
> meteorite. "But it is hard to say yet if it made landfall," Ashcraft
> said.
>
> He said fireballs of this size and brightness are rare. "A large event
> like this only happens once or twice or three times a year over the
> same location," said Ashcraft, who operates the video camera nightly
> and reports data back to Sandia.
>
> Certainly sightings of UFOs are more frequent in the Land of
> Enchantment. According to the National UFO Reporting Center, New
> Mexico residents have reported 642 instances of strange, unidentified
> aerial lights and shapes dating back to at least the mid-1990s. The
> latest report out of Santa Fe was on May 26, when someone reported
> seeing two gold "starlike" objects moving in a staggered formation
> over the Jemez Mountains just before noon, according to the Center's
> website.
>
> The most recent fireball reported to the center was spotted March 3
> over Rio Rancho and lasted 10 minutes, according to the poster.
>
> Ashcraft urges anyone who captured an image of the fireball on film or
> video to send him a copy. If he can get more images from other
> locations, he can triangulate the location of the falling meteor. He
> can be contacted at [hidden email].
>
>
> ============================================================
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
>

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org