Mike's Astro Photos

My wife had her 40th birthday this weekend. We threw her a big party and then I took her to New York City for a few days to catch a show and look at some meteorites…

Meteor Impact Reveals Ice Under Surface of Mars

Ice On The Moon

I got this in an email from a random internet user named kirk2012. Kirk this is hilarious, thanks so much for taking the time to make this.

Andromeda Calling Comic (Click To Enlarge)

The new observatory is almost complete. I just got power working last night. I have the scope setup in there on the tripod as I haven’t gotten the pier yet. Its currently being fabricated and I should have it by the end of the month. Photography wise I’m limited to piggyback shots until I get the pier installed. I took this photo of Andromeda last night, I simply mounted my camera on top of my telescope, pointed to the Andromeda and snapped 5×2 minute exposures. I stacked 3 inside photoshop to create this image. There was the lowest default zoom on the camera, so the size of Andromeda is what it would be if you saw it with your naked eye (no magnification). Andromeda is the fuzzy ball in the center of the pic.

Andromeda Galaxy - September 19th, 2009

Meteorite Window Test

As I reported a few days ago a farmer in Lancaster contacted me about some strange rocks he found on his farm. I went out to see the rocks and they were definitely strange and a little meteoric. My initial thoughts were the rocks were probably some sort of slag, but it was not a type of slag I recognized. When I encounter suspicious rocks I photograph them and send the pictures out to people that are more knowledgeable about meteorites than I am.

The next day I sent the pics out to the meteorite list and within 10 minutes I got 20 emails back that in effect said… “that looks like a meteorite / that could be a meteorite.” The members gave me suggestions on a few tests I could run that would help confirm if it was in fact a meteorite. The tests included a bulk density test, a window test and a nickle test. Several members suggested to ‘cut that sucker open’.

On site I did the bulk density test and the window test. Three of the rocks passed the bulk density test so this was a very positive sign. For the window test, using an electric sander we shaved away part of the rocks exterior so we could look inside. The window revealed small metal flakes that looked like chrondules.  Unfortunately we also saw some vesicles (small holes/ air bubbles inside the stone.)At the time we did the tests it was dark and I thought the holes could have been caused by the sander.

Window test - showing vesicles (holes)

When I got the rock home I took some pictures of the window and emailed them out to some meteorite experts. They quickly responded and told me holes = slag… no meteorite.

This was kind of a bummer, but a great learning experience. I was able to learn and execute two new field tests that I can use to help identify meteorites. I was also very happy that the farmer found these rocks and called me about them. Gideon, I’m sorry it doesn’t look like these are meteorites, but they are defineately the best meteor-wrongs I’ve found so far in this adventure. Thank you very much for finding them and calling me about them.

Meteor Wrong Sliced

For learning purposes and to be extra sure I wanted to follow through with the two other tests. I ordered a nickle test online, but haven’t gotten it yet. I drove out to Haggerstown MD to Derik Bower’s house. Derik has a diamond bladed rock saw and offered to slice the rock for me. When I showed Derik the rock he laughed and said, “that really looks like a meteorite”. We cut up the rock and inside we could see air bubbles that essentially confirmed this is a meteor-wrong.  If it weren’t for the bubbles it looks a little like this black meteorite slice. This rock has a lot of meteoric attributes inside and out, but the one thing that categorically rules out meteorite is air bubbles inside the rock.

The new tests to identify a meteorite I learned from this rock are:

- bulk density test
- tile test (scrape the rock on the backside of a bathroom tile. A real meteorite should not leave a mark)
- window test (shave off a small piece of the exterior and look inside)
- slice test (use a rock saw to cut off a slice of the rock)
- nickle test (google nickle allergy test, buy one, follow instructions. All meteorites should test positive.)

Here’s what 2000 postcards look like. Makes you wonder, if spammers printed a postcard for each piece of spam they sent how much room that would take up.

Meteorite Postcards

The post cards hit the mail Thursday. We should hopefully start getting some new leads in soon.

I’ve gotten about six strange rock reports so far which is great! It shows the locals know meteorites could be on the ground and they are keeping an eye out for them. I have been able to identify most of the rocks I’ve seen so far, but this one in particular I’m not sure about. If anyone knows what this rock is please let me know.

Strange Rock

Strange Rock

Strange Rock

Strange Rock

I plan on sending out close to 2,000 of these post cards next week to property owners with 10 or more acres in the 6 zip codes that include and surround the Lancaster County search area. Within the last few days I have started to get more meteorite found reports. The leads that I have followed up with so far have turned out to be slag. To a meteorite novice, slag really does look like a meteorite or what you would think a meteorite would look like if you had never seen one before. Slag is black, often magnetic and burnt. It is easy to mistakenly think a piece of slag could be a meteorite.

With this post card I hope to 1) Raise awareness and excitement with a broad number of residents that extend beyond our refined search area. 2) Give the residents an informational and visual guide to help them identify a meteorite 3) Let them know about slag and how to identify it.

Here is the front of the card:

Meteor Postcard Front

Here is the back of the card:

Meteor Postcard Back

I plan on sending this out next Tuesday or Wednesday. Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions before these hit the mail.

Here are some more constructions photos of the observatory. These were from a few weeks ago.

Here is a video of the roll off roof in action (this was taken the day we got the roof working).

Dented Roof In New Holland

As I reported earlier, I recently got a great lead from a woman in New Holland named Jeane (pronounced with the e, think I Dream of…). Jeane couldn’t sleep the morning of July 6th and was watching Ghost Hunters when she heard a very loud crashing noise right outside her bedroom window. The next morning she looked outside her window and noticed a large dent in her metal porch roof. Everything about the initial report sounded very promising and was and still is the best lead I have gotten since the meteorite search started. New Holland is not in our current focus area, but it is within the greater impact zone. The specific house is approximately 1/2 miles south of the geometric impact point.  A meteorite found in this location is totally plausible and would support all of the data we are working with.

Dislodged and Broken Fascia Board

I went out to her house last Thursday, examined the damage, took some pictures and looked around her property but did not find any meteorites. I did notice the obvious big dent in the corrugated steel roof and what looked like black roofing tar splattered in the same location as the dent, (but no where else on the patio roof).  With my head out the window I turned my body around, looked up and noticed the fascia board was cracked and dislodged from the house. The cracked fascia board was about one foot to the left of the dent in the patio roof.  Jeane said she definitely would have noticed the dent before and when I looked at it from the underside of the porch I believed her. This would be a hard thing to miss. She also stated that she looked outside the window that morning because she had heard the noise the night before and it sounded like something had hit the porch roof.

Dog Hole Where Meteorite Should Be

After examining the roof from the upstairs I went to the backyard and looked around. At the end of the porch, aligned with the dent I saw a rather large hole in the ground about 3 inches closer to the house than I would have expected to see a meteorite had it rolled off the metal roof and onto the ground. Jeane said she hadn’t noticed the hole and said her dog (a boxer named precious) didn’t dig holes (I found two other holes in the yard and Jeane was surprised to see those as well).

After searching for a little over an hour I left Jeane’s house and asked her if I could come back again the next to day look around some more. After I left her house I drove around and stopped at about 8-10 different businesses in the area. Compared to the farmlands I have been searching recently New Holland is like a booming metropolis. There are a lot of agricultural businesses in this area and I stopped by several different warehouses and left messages with the facilities manager to keep an eye out for meteorites on the roof tops. I also went to a driving range that was closed at the time (I searched the range, but only found golf balls).

Three Cars With Dents

I then went by two different car dealerships. I asked them if they had any cars on their lots damaged after July 4th weekend. One of the dealerships told me that 3 cars had been damaged the Monday after July 4th weekend. All three cars were lined up next to each other and all three had what the manager described as ‘bb-gun dents’ in the passenger side windows. The cars were parked such that the passenger side doors were facing south. Three cars next to each other all getting hit by meteorites seemed like a stretch to me and I asked around if this was possible. I was told it was unlikely as normally meteorites would be falling straight down and not at an angle. I finished up the time in New Holland that day hunting along the train tracks. Talk about a fun place to look for meteorites.

I sent the pictures out to a couple of people that night and got back some skeptical replies. The main concern was the dent was wider than what would be expected. It also lacked visible scratches that also would have been expected had a meteorite caused it. I was told the dent looked like it was caused by something that was soft and big, not something that was small and hard. I was in the area that Friday working on some farms so I went back to her house later that afternoon. I didn’t search much but I talked to her about what to look for. I also told her I wanted to get on the top of the roof to see if there was any other damage up there. I also wanted to run my metal detector through her backyard.

Bent Roof

I went back to Jeane’s house again for a third time tonight and brought along my friend Dan Casey. Dan is a home inspector with National Property Inspectors and knows a lot about houses, damage to houses and is in general a pretty analytical thinker about these kinds of things. Dan has gone hunting with me a couple of times and has been helping me out with the search however he can. If you need a home inspection in Baltimore County or Southern Pennsylvania give Dan a call, he’s a great guy and really knows his stuff.  Dan climbed to the top of the roof and took this picture. The metal frame is bent right above the dent on the porch roof below. After Dan came down, I climbed up the ladder and took a look myself. It was coincidentally placed, but after thinking about it, we both agreed, that whatever would have left such a dent in the lower roof would have caused more damage in the upper roof (although I still think its possible…)

I ran an Earth magnet through the dog hole and in the flower beds next to the porch. I found magnetic particles in the dirt, but I think the ground is contaminated with a lot of metal as I was getting hits all over the back yard with my metal detector.

I realize that if you look at a pizza pie long enough you will see the Virgin Mary, however there are a lot of things going on at this house that suggest a meteorite hit it:

- Jeane’s initial report
- The broken fascia board
- The bent frame on the upper roof
- The dog hole
- The huge dent in the porch roof

The interesting thing about the three dog holes is they were all in locations where a meteorite could have landed after bouncing off the porch roof. Something is telling me the dog found the meteorite, hid it somewhere and then dug the holes to look for more.

Nasa has just published over 1,500 high resolution photos of Mars. These are the best / most comprehensive mars pictures every released. Pretty cool:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-136

High Res Mars Pictures

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Mike Gaines and Mike Hankey

I have had a very productive week on the meteor front. Numerous leads and contacts came in as a result of the Lancaster newspaper article, my mailing also was delivered to the farmers (I got confirmation of this today). I was in the field yesterday and today following up on leads, searching fields and talking to farmers, businesses and residents.  I started out early and met up with Jeff a fellow meteorite hunter from Northern PA. Jeff has been helping me out with a lot of stuff, we covered a lot of ground today and he taught me a few new things. Jeff took off around 4:00 and I drove about 7 minutes away from the primary search zone to do a second follow up on a new lead.

Here is that lead:

Mike, I was reading the Lancaster paper tonight and saw about the meteorite-I think this clears something up for me- I am in CLASSIFIED, Pa on the early morning of July 6th, I couldnt sleep and was watching tv- all the sudden I heard a huge bang right outside my 2nd story bedroom( scared the living outta me. I peeked out and didnt see anything, I thought at the time someone must have thrown a m-80 or something at my window-upon inspecting better in the morning there is a huge dent on the top of my patio roof with black splat marks, right underneath my bedroom window-it also left a couple holes. I looked around on the ground to see if I could see anything there, but now i will have to check a little harder, after seeing your pic in the paper. But I am sure now that is what it was, because my house does not have easy access to my back yard-Thanks for the article but I think you need to be looking north of intercourse-Jeane

I have seen a lot of evidence at Jeane’s house that suggests the meteor struck her roof. I will be publishing more details in the next couple of days. I have learned to not get too excited with things, but I really think this could be it.

On my way home I stopped by Mike Gaines house. Mike is the star eye witness for the Mason Dixon Meteor and lives 15 minutes away from the geometric impact point. Mike is hunting Saturday so I dropped off a box of fliers, a few rare earth magnets and a handful of NWA meteorites to hand out to children who live on the farms. Mike recently discovered the latest video of the meteor and I got to watch the high res version on his computer. It looks much better than the one on you tube. Mike showed me his porch where he witnessed the meteor and he pointed to the area of the sky where it was. Mike’s eye witness account is very interesting as he saw multiple objects in the sky after first seeing a very bright light. Hearing the story again and being there in person gave me chills. Stay tuned for the latest updates on the meteor search. I think we are close to the end of this story.

Thanks to the article in the Lancaster newspaper I’ve been getting lots of emails with great new leads, information and a bunch of new meteorite hunters too. If you have information, think you found something or want to help with the search please email me at mike.hankey [AT] gmail.com.

Meteor Wrong But What

Yesterday, I got a call from Susan in Quarryville. Susan had found three rocks on her front lawn that were odd and just showed up one day. Quarryville was a hot search area six weeks ago and is under the flight path so the report was credible. The description Susan gave me over the phone also sounded like a meteorite. I went out to her house to inspect the rock. It was definitely interesting and a rock that I have never seen before. After looking it over and testing it with a magnet I concluded it was probably not a meteorite. While it had a crust and looked burnt, it had crystals on the outer shell and I could see layers inside the stone. It was very heavy and very odd. I’m not sure what it is and I’ve searched on google images for purple crystallized rock and a few other keywords. Please leave a comment if you know what this rock is. Thank you Susan for calling me and letting me know about this, I’m sorry it didn’t turn out to be a meteorite, I really thought it was going to be one.

Dan Michaels Search September 2nd, 2009

A bunch of new meteorite hunters have joined the search which is great. Guys lmk if you have any questions. The best next thing to do is get out to the target area, start talking to farmers and telling them about what happened. Encourage them to search for meteorites on their own. Explain to them that the meteorites are black and magnetic. Tell them to keep an eye out for these that they are worth a lot of $$$. Every farmer I have talked to has been very interested in the story and will be willing to look for them when he cuts his fields — this is our best chance of recovery! But while you are at it, also ask him if you can search some of his fields. Tell him you will hand over anything you find and he will 99% of the time let you search right on the spot. Just don’t go on Sundays. Try to keep track of what fields you searched. If you want specific satellite zoom maps send me the coordinates that you want and I will email you a map.

One of the new meteorite hunters, Dan Michaels who contacted me has already been out in the field and is marking his territory. Dan is an amateur astronomer too and knows about meteorites. Great to have you on board Dan! We have over a dozen hunters who are currently working the area or will be working the area very soon.  The area Dan choose to search and the way he documented his search is a perfect example to follow. In Dan’s map C represents corn fields and T represents tobacco.  Dan mentioned that the corn field he was searching was cut the day before and the farmer was already laying manure! I thought they usually waited a couple of weeks. Dan said it is common for a lot of farmers to fertilize the land right after cutting the corn. It is critical that we talk to each and everyone of these farmers before they cut their crops so we can let them know what happened and to be on the lookout.

Here are a few pics Dan took out in the field. Nice work Dan! You are da man!

Dan Michael's Search Field September 2nd, 2009

Dan, horse shoes are good luck right? Are you suggesting something here? I take this as a another very positive sign.

Dan Michael's Horse Shoe - September 2nd, 2009

This search is picking up serious momentum. This thing is out there and we’re going to find it.

Lancaster County paper had a front page news story about the meteorite hunt:

http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/241689

I’ve already gotten some really great leads from the article. If anyone out there from Lancaster knows anything or wants to help, please leave me a comment on the blog or email me : mike.hankey [AT] gmail.com

Thanks!

Mike

The pier as it is called is the center piece and one could argue most important part of an observatory. The pier is what the telescope rests on and a stable platform is critical when you want to take astro photos. I put a lot of time into researching and thinking about the type of pier I wanted to use and I ended up going with pier tech. This pier is a square metal column that is mounted to a plate set in concrete on or above the ground. Our concrete pillar ended up using 3000 pounds of concrete and was a pear shaped block at its widest point 3×3 and narrowest 2×2. The pier is two feet off ground level and is buried three feet under ground.

Another element of pier placement and development planning is the true north issue. Telescopes need to be mounted in a specific way so that they are pointed exactly true north. True north and magnetic north are different, so using a compass is unreliable. I wanted the structure of the observatory itself to be set to true north, meaning the east and west walls point exactly north and south. The building itself is a compass pointing at true north. The frame for the pier was set in the center of the structure and its walls are parallel with the buildings walls.  To determine true north markings I used a variety of methods including: using a compass and offsetting for magnetic north (not recommended), using a sun dial at solar noon, using a telescope / the stars with drift alignment (and then marking the ground based on wedge location) and using a GPS. When all was said and done we got it right. For those of you who want to know the best way to find true north, I would recommend using a good hikers GPS (or iPhone compass) to figure it out.

Here are some pics of the pier construction. These are from a few weeks ago, the observatory is nearly completed, I will post more pics of the construction soon.