From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #32 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Saturday, 12 March 1994 Volume 05 : Number 032 In this issue: [Q] What is a Bolide? Re: [Q] What is a Bolide? Dictionaries Re: Video Bolides Re: Video Bolides See the end of the digest for information on subscribing to the skunk-works or skunk-works-digest mailing lists and on how to retrieve back issues. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Carl Petter Swensson Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 14:21:41 -0100 Subject: [Q] What is a Bolide? Please forgive my ignorance but English is not my mother tongue and I do not know what a bolide is? Could anyone explain? Regards, Carl - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Carl P. Swensson Senior Systems Eng. internet: cepe@taskon.no Taskon AS Gaustadalleen 21 Tel: +47-22 95 86 21 N-0371 Oslo, Norway Fax: +47-22 60 44 27 - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ From: jason@minster.york.ac.uk Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 15:23:23 Subject: Re: [Q] What is a Bolide? According to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary: "A large meteor; usually one that explodes. A fireball". For the sake of clarity, they decided to call one of the longest English dictionaries "Shorter"... :-) jason ------------------------------ From: andy cobley Date: Fri, 11 Mar 94 16:49:18 GMT Subject: Dictionaries Jason says: For the sake of clarity, they decided to call one of the longest English dictionaries "Shorter"... :-) Have you seen the full Oxford English Dictionary, find it then you will know why its called the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary 8) (sorry, off subject !) andy c ------------------------------ From: larry@ichips.intel.com Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 10:46:47 -0800 Subject: Re: Video Bolides C. W. Clark writes: >The Nature for February 17, 1994 contains an analysis of the Peekskill >meteorite (October 9, 1992). Yes. I'm going to get a copy of that. Science News 2/26/94, pg.133 also has a summary of the NATURE article. > I've seen several of the video's of that >event (it happened on a football Friday night) I recall that video. It got a lot of press the night that it happened. In fact it was played on the 11pm News out here in Oregon the same night. The Science News article also has a still frame from the video, so besides that, you'll have to trust my memory of the video. But recall, that I was especially interested from my experience in July of 1991. So I was quite interested when I saw that video. I think I even recorded it at the time, but I can't find it in my tape archives. > recently and whatever is on >the AW&ST tape *closely* resembles the Peekskill videos. See for >yourselves. Closely? Now that, I completely disagree with (from my memory of the Peekskill video and the frame in Science News)! They resemble each other ONLY in the aspect that something is coming off the lead body and that debris is clumped. The other details are completely different! Allow me to point out some: Color of the object (AWST=Gold, Peekskill=Green). Trajectory (AW&ST=Low and Level, Peekskill=High and Descending) Number of people seeing it (AW&ST=2 (a few), Peekskill=Thousands+ over many states) Recorded Flight Time (AW&ST=40 seconds, Peekskill=22 seconds) Main Body History (AW&ST=ejectant stops, main body intact and departs to east, Peekskill=Main body disintegrates BEFORE ejectants) Ejectant Phase (AW&ST=Very gas/plasma like, Peekskill=Obvious solid) Debris Fan (AW&ST=No verticle fanning or trajectory change by ejectant - ejectant stayed in perfect straight line behind main body until COMPLETELY dissipated, wave action seen reflecting back and forth through trail near time of complete dissipation, Peekskill=Solid ejectant fanned away from staying inline behind the main body immediately after emmission (undoubtedly due to the fact that the aerodynamic characteristics of each ejected particle being different than the main body)) Main Body appearance (AW&ST=A rectangle or pencil with flattened ends, with a dark line running longitudinally through the center, Peekskill=A burning ball (rock?)) In short they resemble each other ONLY in the fact that something looks like it is coming off a main object, and that something is clumped. In other words a high level or gross similarity. I might add that I've seen three other meteor videos. Two that grazed the upper atmosphere and one that completely reentered like Peekskill. It's interesting that the grazing meteors WERE different than the Peekskill video. One of the grazing meteors looked like a classic slow moving very large fireball with a tail of fire or a comet inside the atmosphere, if you will. It disappeared after grazing off the upper atmosphere and departing back into space. The other grazing meteor looked like a thick jet contrail that also disappeared as the meteor departed after grazing off. Subtle differences can be important! If I didn't know what a jet plane was, but I knew what a meteor was, I guess I would wrongly classify all jet contrails. I'm not saying that the AW&ST video isn't a meteor, but I think the details are important. Larry ------------------------------ From: al680@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (C. W. Clark) Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 23:58:24 GMT Subject: Re: Video Bolides Wow, this must be why my ears were burning :-). The above comments (is it above or below, I wonder?) are reasonable. Lets pretend I said only 'Look at both events and decide for yourselves.' It's the evidence that counts, of course. The unfortunate thing about shows like the UM episode is that the vast majority of taxpayers (most of you) and third parties (some of you) don't have the benefit of critical discussion. One moral of the story, for those of you who don't wear glasses and are not used to spurious reflections, is that if you are following some 'UFO' with your camera make your tracking a little rough at least once. That'll at least allow the opportunity to show a camera related effect for what it is. Easy to say, just try to do it in the heat of battle! CWC. In a previous article, larry@ichips.intel.com () says: [some deletion] > >I recall that video. It got a lot of press the night that it happened. >In fact it was played on the 11pm News out here in Oregon the same night. > >The Science News article also has a still frame from the video, so besides >that, you'll have to trust my memory of the video. But recall, that I was >especially interested from my experience in July of 1991. So I was quite >interested when I saw that video. I think I even recorded it at the time, >but I can't find it in my tape archives. > >> recently and whatever is on >>the AW&ST tape *closely* resembles the Peekskill videos. See for >>yourselves. > >Closely? > >Now that, I completely disagree with (from my memory of the Peekskill >video and the frame in Science News)! ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #32 ******************************** To subscribe to skunk-works-digest, send the command: subscribe skunk-works-digest in the body of a message to "majordomo@mail.orst.edu". If you want to subscribe something other than the account the mail is coming from, such as a local redistribution list, then append that address to the "subscribe" command; for example, to subscribe "local-skunk-works": subscribe skunk-works-digest local-skunk-works@your.domain.net To unsubscribe, send mail to the same address, with the command: unsubscribe skunk-works-digest in the body. 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