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Old March 30th 05, 09:59 AM
Ed Majden
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Default Fireball reporting

I have added a section on fireball reporting to my web site at:

http://members.shaw.ca/epmajden/index.htm

This includes hyper links to Fireball Report Forms and also a link to
the video of the Peekskill N.Y. fireball which dropped a meteorite which was
recovered after impacting the back of a car.
Dr. Jeremy N. Tatum provided a paper which describes what is needed for
serious analysis of a fireball drop zone. He insists on instrumental
measurements obtained by an in situ interview of the witness of the fireball
by a trained investigator. Predicting a drop zone is difficult even with
accurate measurements so he won't attempt doing the math until he has
reliable confirmed measurements. Even with photographic methods this is not
as precise as one may think. Anyone predicting a drop zone without accurate
measurements is just kidding him or her self.
Hopefully search engines will find my site and list it under Meteor
Fireball Reporting.
Dr. Martin Beech has written an interesting pdf paper pointing out some
of the difficulties of meteorite recovery. See:

hyperion.cc.uregina.ca/~astro/MIAC/Dec_ret.pdf

Hopefully this will encourage observers of fireballs to fill out reports
and provide enough information so the person can be contacted in case the
researcher needs better information.

Ed Majden
Courtenay, B.C.
CANADA