Re: [meteorite-list] DOD Satellites Detect March 2003 Bolide Over Park Forest

[Thetoprok]

Hello Folks,

This whole thing has me a bit perplexed for several reasons. First, the stone my brother and I recovered had a distinct angle of entry that I saw and documented, and passed on to Mr. Sipiera. That trajectory definately indicated that the offending stone came in from the S.E. and was heading in a N.W. direction. I determined this before ever being subjected to other theoriesof direction of entry. I also spoke with eyewitnesses in the days that followed and all backed up that conclusion.
On a second trip I met with a man named Atul Kumar, He isn't a scientist but he has been gathering info on the strewn field for the astronomy club that he is involved with. He has compiled quite a list/map of stones that were recovered, including weights and locations of recovery, and his map indicates the same S.E. to N.W. direction, with the larger stones coming from the N.W. end of the strewn field.
Of course I can't argue with the DOD satellite observation, but it sure is contradictory to what I've been thinking all along! The satellite indicates an entry of exactly the opposite of what the strewn field maps look like that I have seen, and my own recoveries, 70 gram stone in Steger, 638gram stone in P.F. indicate at the very least a South to North trajectory, (roughly).
No matter how you slice it, based on the DOD satellite info, the larger stones should be south of the small ones, and this is just not the case.
Is human error possible, between interpretation of the satellite data and publication of said information?
Curious minds want to know,
Larry