Los Alamos Conference on Aerial Phenomena, 1949

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Conference on AERIAL PHENOMENA
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earth, ts as you would elt!)ect, one at rend.ool - in azimuth and elevation. I.f
the rad.laat t7hite is knovn., yor: can preciict the minimum angle with respect to
the plane of the horizon nt which the m.eteoi-i•ce path has been observed. There
is no choice, e.s f'a.r as the ..... for direction wen rceteorites fe.11 in at
ranc1om.
I'd like to contrast 11o·n-, at this time, thia fact with what has been
observed by some indivi.duals here at the co.:?lf'erence and by r.::aey of the AESS
inspectorll, UAL pilota, special a.gents, goodness knows how many other categories
of people.
I choose to describe ·Ghe only one of the incidents that I vas
pereonally o. wi:~nesa to. It io the only one of the incidents that I am in a
nooiticn to vouch fo~ on the basis of experience, dating from 1915, as a member
of the Am~rican !>1etaor Society; w-as most certainly not a. conventioll81 meteorite
fall. It -was the so-called St:U.--vation Peak incident on the night of December 1.2,
19116.
'l'iue of observation around 9;02 P.M., plus or minus 30 seconds. This
rir0·oa11 nppeared in full intenoity instantly • there was no increase in light.
Its color,, estimated to be somewhere arotmd wave length 5200 engstroma, .ms a.
hue green, or yello-11 green, such ae I had never observed in meteor falls before.
The path ua.e a& I!.etlrly horizontal as one could determine by visual observation.
We have ~ pho·togra:1>h which might be some li--;; ra ot departure from horizontal..
The trajectory was traverse at, I am inclined to believe, constant angular
velocity. Just befor0 the end of the pat;h ·there we.a the very 811gb.test drooping
of the path, that io the green fireball broke into fragments, still bright green.
Dr. Teller: And all this time the intensity uas approxiJDately constant?
Dr. !.a.Paz:: All -the time, as fa'.!." ae I cou.ld determine. The eye, of course, is
e.dmitted.l.~r a very crude phcrcographer.
Dr. Teller: Rov long did the phenomenon last1
Dr. 1-.'i.Paz~
Almost exactly two i:;econds.
We have in the reports here, I brought
the com:plt::te file nth ma and uould be glad. to circulate them, duration measures
in 1•ela.tion. to all observations. Fev of -these, h~rever, I believe, were
deter.Jlinoo under as favorable circumstancea as the duration of the Starvation
Peak incident. Possibly I should go back and review the situation a little bit.
Because oom~ report, iaau.ed by the AESS, uoul.d certain]Jr suggest that I was
prinillrily responsible for starting this whole matter
I am glad that Captain
Reel' corrected that impression. Actually:- I YaS on an investigation in regard
to -'che green fireball. observed on tho night of December 5th at the time the
Dece111ber 12th incident occurretl. As a :result I was keyed up; I was 'WBtehing;
I h'.1.cl a stop vatch with me and a transit. We got into position and made
measures, transit :ciee,suros, on azimuths and elevation readings; that is, we
ma.de a dm.·a:cion check, certainly within not more than tvo or three minutes
sftor the incident occurred. To that extent, I believe, it is posaibly' the
best observed ot any incident up to tha time of the January 30th fall.
Dr. Manl~r: Hem did you have time to use ·t;b.e tranait?
Dr. La.Po.~:
The transit was in the back of ·the car. The mament the car was
parked a:c the aide of th2 road, we yanked. the transit out and set 1t u,p and