Picture of Fireball Meteor Through Telescope

[mikesastro]

This was posted on slashdot.org last week.

http://www.mikesastrophotos.com/baltimo ... pa-meteor/

"July 6th 2009, amateur astronomer Mike Hankey accidentally captured this picture of a large fireball through a 90mm telescope while trying to take a long exposure of the Andromeda galaxy. The bollide was also caught on a security tape at the york water company and its light and shadows were also recorded on two cameras at the Safe Harbor Dam. There is an active search to find the meteorites left by this space rock and the search bulls eye has been identified, in part using this picture. The photo shows the main body of the meteor has broken up into at least 7 parts. Multiple dim streaks that appear to burn out half way through the picture indicate small meteorites that have broken away and started the free fall to Earth. "

--- i know there are a lot of problems with this picture: vignetting, dust on the CCD, light pollution, polar alignment etc, however to my understanding and belief there is currently no other picture like this in existence. There are plenty of pictures of meteors, but not ones through a telescope and certainly not a big fireball like this. If I am wrong about this, please let me know. I have been trying to confirm if this has ever been done before (taking a photo of a fireball meteor through a telescope) and have not been able to find any pictures of fireballs through telescopes. If this has in fact never been done before, this should certainly be APOD worthy. Please seriously consider. If anyone knows if there is an existing picture of a fireball meteor through a telescope it would be this group.

This picture has been thoroughly vetted and is not a plane. Please read this article first if you think its a plane: http://www.mikesastrophotos.com/baltimo ... id-hunter/

The photo has been published on Skyandtelescope.com, the baltimore sun and several other places.

Thank you very much for considering.

Mike Hankey

[mikesastro]

Its been almost 2 weeks since I posted this and no one has replied.

can anyone answer my question or give me some feedback?

Thanks.

[bystander]

This forum is not directly associated with APOD. It was started by one of the editors of APOD, Dr. Robert J. Nemiroff (RJN). I can only assume he still reads the posts here from time to time. If APOD is interested, they will contact you. As to whether this has been done before, only somebody who has done it can truthfully answer.

bystander
Forum Moderator