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Canal Flats Meteor Expedition

LOCATION: Dr. Alan Hildebrand sent out the location marked on a map as an ellipse. From a topographical map NTS82J the centre of that ellipse is: 50° 21’N, 115° 13′ W (50.385, -115.217), and from GoogleMaps that is 50° 23′, 115° 13′ W, 550 ft down the hill. Lincoln Hanton and Alan Hildebrand assume the meteor fragments are scattered in an ellipse 3km wide by 5 km long, along this logged hillside. This is near Sinna Creek, between Russell Peak and Marconi Peak. Just a few kilometres from the Height of the Rockies Provincial Park boundary. For a quick look, cut and paste this into the Google Maps Search line: 50.385N 115.2145W

Strewnfield Fragment Distribution: Because of this scenic and rugged area, the centre of the ellipse would be on a logged hillside on the West side of the Middle White River gorge. Although some would be down in the gorge. Anything that hit across on the East side of the gorge, would be on a narrow shelf of flat rock, with high rocky cliffs above and below. It is expected that the heavier “three pieces” would travel to the far end of the ellipse across the river, and 2kg fragments near the centre, with lighter fragments not travelling as far, scattered along the Western edge.

Dr. Hildebrand has already scouted the area twice in a light aircraft this spring. Other people have been there on the ground, and they report that at the ellipse the logged area has been replanted with pine trees, which have grown to 6 foot tall. They also mention the bridge at 68km was out.

Middle Fork Rec Site: Via main road, go to the Middle Fork Rec Site near Seeta Creek at KM66 on the White Middle fork of the White River Forest Service Road. There was a forest fire there in 2003, and it has been logged since, but the Middle Fork trail was cleared in Aug 2014. Leave the main road and turn left on the Sinna Creek logging road 0.9km past the Seeta Creek bridge. After following the river bank for 3.2km, turn left up the hill. At 3.7km turn left again, and continue until 4.9 km. You are at ground zero, 50.385N 115.2145W

Maiyuk Rec Site: Note that just 2km further up the main road is the Maiyuk Rec Site at KM68, with horse corrals, firepits and outhouse. If you can get there, that is. Reports are that the Middle White River road at 67.5KM is still washed out just before the bridge, and won’t be fixed until Sept 2015. Some people have been using a ford across the river there, going through 18 inch deep water with a solid gravel bottom.

Above is a road map– right click on it and open it in a new tab to see it full size.

SPRING FLOOD WASHOUT AT KM59:Now that the river is flooding with snow melt, we’re getting a washout on the Middle White Road, at a culvert just past the bridge at the Mt. Forsyth Rec Site at KM59. GPS: 50.2780N 115.2000W 1390m (that’s 50d 16′ 41″, -115d 12′ 00″) Water is about knee deep, with a fast current. Below the surface are soft muddy ruts. The Middle White R. is overflowing it’s banks and cutting across a loop, running from right to left in the photo. The concrete/steel bridge 50 feet back over the Middle White is fine. Water is everywhere through the trees. No place to cross on foot, without getting wet.

Washout at Forsyth Rec Site
Washout at Forsyth Rec Site

LOWER NORTH FORK Route: The map shows another way around. We backtracked back across the bridge at KM43 and tried an alternate route on the Lower North White Road. Do you notice anything odd about the bridge in this photo?

North Fork White River Lower Bridge
North Fork White River Lower Bridge

Yep, one end is missing. Presumably this washed out in the big 2013 flood. Note the six ten-foot long planks placed at the end for ATVs to cross. So it would be possible to take motorcycles or ATVs past there. Assuming there aren’t trees down and more washouts further along this rugged road. (This bridge is at GPS 50.232N 115.265W).

3D Anaglyph of Mid White R. Gorge
3D Anaglyph of Mid White R. Gorge

If you have 3D goggles handy (the NASA standard type red/cyan anaglyph ones) then take a peek at this awesome impact area 3D photo. Those are rugged high mountains and deep river gorges there. Russell peak range is like the prow of a big battleship on the left. Deep gorge in middle. Sinna Creek running through a gouge in the ridge. That rectangular feature to the centre right is a towering T-shape mountain. These stereoscopic photo pairs were photographed in 2005.

New Central Meteor Camera Site

The BC Meteor network stations routinely upload our meteor videos to a central North American gathering site, where they are displayed for the public for about a month before being archived.

Previously that was the New Mexico State University Allsky Camera site in Las Cruces, NM. (Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering) at http://skysentinel.nmsu.edu/allsky/clusters There they store the videos sorted by regions (which they call clusters and nodes) and match events common to multiple stations. However last year their grant ran out from the Sandia National Laboratory and the National Nuclear Security Administration of the Dept. Of Energy. They have been doing it for free until a new site takes over.

The new site is run by Space Coast Intelligent Solutions (SCIS) Melbourne, FL at http://goskysentinel.com/clusters (in transition from NMSU). The site is already working, and shows cluster events seen from multiple cameras, and that will grow as more cameras transition. The NMSU server will be shut down once all the cameras that were online there have been transitioned to goskysentinel.com.

Eta Aquariid Meteor Shower Tuesday May 6 2014 around 4am

The Eta Aquariid Meteor Shower should peak Tuesday morning, the 6th of May at 07:00 Universal Time (or midnight Pacific Daylight Savings Time, or 1am Mountain Saving Time), but the best viewing times (due to the Moon and a low Eastern radiant) will a few hours before dawn Tuesday morning, around 4am to 5am.

At the peak, up to 55 meteors could be seen each hour. They’re pretty fast, at 66km/second, often bright with very long paths, and leave persistent glowing trails.

The source of the meteors is debris from Halley’s Comet. The Comet’s orbital path contains dust particles and ice (thinned out in spots by Jupiter). The Earth crosses Halley’s orbital path twice each year. In May we see it as the Eta Aquariid meteor shower and in October the Orionids.

The Eta Aquariids will be best seen early Tuesday morning. The Moon will have set by then, so it will be seen under a dark sky. The radiant is low in the Eastern sky, in Aquarius, which rises around 4am. So over half of the meteors will be unseen below the horizon.

If you miss the peak, they will continue to fall all week, slowly tapering off, with above 30 meteors/hr lasting from May 3 to Saturday May 10 2014.

For more information, see the International Meteor Organization Site at http://www.imo.net/calendar/2014#eta

More on the Canal Flats Fireball

Picture taken by Brett Abernethy from Johnson Lake near Banff, about 95 km North of Canal Flats (at 51.2138°N, -115.5013°W, 1,480m ). Looking due South, Brett took the photo on Dec 20, 2014 at 12:20am, while setup to photograph the Aurora Borealis. Brett says it fell slowly, flaring just like a welding arc, bright enough to light up the entire landscape, and 2.5 seconds later ended by exploding into three pieces, cooling to an orange colour at around 30km high.

Fireball Falling as Seen From Cranbrook -- Animated GIF
Canal Flats Fireball as Seen From Cranbrook

The same fireball as seen from Cranbrook, about 90km South of Canal Flats, viewed through the thin clouds, measuring as bright as the full Moon, magnitude about -12. This is an Animated GIF which plays 11 frames of the meteor if viewed on a website, or webmail. Taken from the College of the Rockies, 49.518 °N 115.744 °W Elevation 940m.

CanalFlatsFireball_RAO_AllSky_Calgary
CanalFlatsFireball_RAO_AllSky_Camera_Calgary

The Rothney Astrophysical Observatory at University of Calgary also imaged it at 00:23:53 at Lat 50.868039 °N, Long 114.291142 °W, 1,270m. A nice colour photo, it’s a one minute composite.

With three ground sites having a good fix on it, Lincoln Hanton and Dr. Alan Hildebrand determined the impact site pretty accurately at 50° 21’N, 115° 13’W.

Map of Canal Flats Impact Area
Map of Canal Flats Impact Area
3D Aerial Photo of Impact Area
3D Aerial Photo of Impact Area

If you have standard red/cyan 3D glasses, you can view the valley near Marconi Peak where the meteor impacted and see the high mountain ridges East and West. These are old aerial photos from 1981.

More info to add yet

Comet ISON and Meteor Counts in January 2014

Preliminary results from Belarus-Ukraine observers : 

are consistent with the hypothesis that earth did pass through Comet ISON’s long tail  in January 7-23, and that this caused a significant increase in meteor counts as detected by observers in Ukraine and Belarus.

To read early report (PS this is a work in progress : http://1drv.ms/1gWhvHW )

Period January 7-23

Year  Average Count

2012  /10

2013 / 20

2014 / 80

 

Call to Action : If any others can summarize their own results this would be very helpful.

Minsk Team write : 

Уважаемые коллеги Александр и Bill !

Остаётся просмотреть снимки на 2,5 олл-скай камерах 🙂

11 – 13 января – явно вырисовывается радиант “спорадических” метеоров из
региона Leo,LMi, UMa, UMi, Cam, Lyn, Cnc.

Мы просмотрели снимки олл-скай камер в интервале времени 10 – 17 января 2014 года.
Иван М. Сергей показал график радионаблюдений метеорного фона за январь 2014 – там хорошо просматривается повышенная метеорная активность 08 – 24 января 2014. Прилагаю графики радионаблюдений за январь 2012 и январь 2013

Может нам поднять снимки и просмотреть ещё раз в интервале 06 – 26 января 2014 ?

Bill, может у Вас кто-нибудь тоже проведёт подобную работу – просмотры снимков олл-скай камер и радионаблюдения метеорного фона

Иван Брюханов
Анастасия Кулаковская, Валентин Таболич, Анастасия Таболич.
Минск

ENGL

Dear colleagues, Alexander and Bill!

It remains to view images on 2.5 all-sky cameras 🙂

January 11-13 – clearly emerges radiant ” sporadic ” meteors from the region
Leo, LMi, UMa, UMi, Cam, Lyn, Cnc.

We viewed pictures of all- sky cameras in the time interval 10-17 January 2014.
Ivan Sergei M. schedule radio observations showed meteor background for January 2014 – there is clearly visible meteor activity increased 08 – January 24, 2014 . Attached chart for radio observations in January 2012 and January 2013

Maybe we should raise the pictures and see again in the range of 06 – 26 January 2014 ?

Bill, can you hold someone too similar work – views pictures all- sky cameras and radio observations of the meteor background?

Ivan Bryukhanov
Anastasia Kulakovskaya, Valentin Tabolich, Anastasia Tabolich.
Minsk

Northern lights photographed by Andy Gray on Nov 27

This was the night of the COMET ISON perihelion and sublimation event November 27th. The cosmic wind would carry particles in a cone shape away from far side of the sun. So it is just a coincidence?  But then maybe the sublimation happened over many days even a couple of weeks (not a single explosion) and perhaps particles were projected earthwards.

ISON Experiments – CIOC

At the Comet ISON Observing Campaign (CIOC) meeting in August 2013, some outstanding scientists led by Dr Mike Mumma of NASA Goddard Centre for Astrobiology, discuss their experiments for Nov/Dec 2013 : 

Mumma mentioned that their studies have a population of 26 Comets. They have already identified 24 molecules. They are interested in comparing Kuiper Belt Comets (which move elliptically in the plane of the ecliptic) to Oort Cloud Comets (ISON).

The experiments will have the following overall objectives. 

The main points I took home : 

  • The level of sophistication of our scientists’ study is well beyond most peoples vision or comprehension
  • Water is already accepted as the pre-dominant “non organic volatile” 
  • Extensive experiments on 14 previous COMETS will be continued on ISON 
  • A “taxonomy” (ie classification system) is evolving for Comets. But I notice exoComets are not yet part of the planned taxonomy
  • ExoComets get a promising mention on one slide : The origins of Oort Cloud Comets is still uncertain – are they exoComets. I say “YES”. 
  • Finding “life” continues to be a challenge until NASA defines what are the biomarkers for life – expect paper in 2014 by NASA astrobiologist Chris McKay. Focus will continue to be looking for complex molecules required in DNA. 

ISON presents yet another opportunity to continue the relentless advance of human discoveries.

This one slide, showing the “paradigm changing items”, is probably enough detail for this BLOG. See the video to understand where we are in the actual realization that “Life IS a Cosmic Phenomenon”. 

They seem to have not considered the possibility that inbound hyperbolic comets like ISON might come from adjacent stars. It is only after the kind of event we saw yesterday (where ISON’s eccentricity dropped below “1.00”) that the SUN captures the COMET and traps it in an elliptical orbit of thousands of years. ISON’s orbit period is now 400,864 years 🙂 Sorry ISON. I will sadly not be around when you finally return 400,000 years from now.

To understand the “capture” (or non Capture) issue better, click here to see an explanation from JPL’s Dr Alan Chamberlin on why, even though “e” has just dipped below “1”, it is not correct to say that we’re witnessing the capture of comet ISON.