Mike's Astro Photos

I’ve been imaging Comet Lemmon the last week or so. There’s only about 1/2 hour of imaging time available each day just before dawn. At about 4:00 AM Comet Lemmon is 20 degrees or so off the eastern horizon and just barely imageable until about 4:30 when the sun starts to rise. I’ve been experimenting with a few different imaging strategies and found that a single frame 2-3 minute LRGB seems to have the best results. If there were more time I could capture a deeper exposure, but 1/2 hour doesn’t really allow for enough time.

Here are the best images of the comet I’ve captured over the last week.

Comet C/2012 F6 Lemmon – May 23rd, 2013 – Two minute exposure each of LRGB

Comet C/2012 F6 Lemmon – May 21st, 2013 – Two minute exposure each of LRGB

Comet C/2012 F6 Lemmon – May 20th, 2013 – Two minute exposure each of LRGB

Comet C/2012 F6 Lemmon – May 19th, 2013 – Three minute exposure each of LRGB

Photo Details

Comet C/2012 F6 Lemmon
LRGB 2x2x2x2 Minutes Each
Total exposure: 8 Minutes
Camera: Apogee U16M
Guider: Not Guided
Telescope: RCOS 14.5
Mount: Paramount ME
Location: Auberry, CA
Date: May 19-May 23 2013
Software: The SkyX, MaximDL, FocusMax, CCDStack, Photoshop

Anticipating clear skies for the Eta Aquariids peak, I finalized the setup of 3 Watec video cameras during the day and shortly after dark, started shooting with my DSLR. Unfortunately, the new PC was set to automatically do a windows update at 3:00 AM and rebooted causing the meteor capture software to permanently exit. Despite a clear sky weather report for the entire night, clouds rolled in around 3:30 right as things were getting started. But, as luck would have it, at 3:13 AM, while the radiant was on the horizon, I caught a nice bright Eta Aquariid Meteor right over the barn!

Eta Aquariid Meteor – May 5th, 2013

Here’s a full resolution close up of just the meteor:

Eta Aquariid Meteor – May 5th, 2013 @ 3:13 AM EST

Now I knew that the radiant would be rising in the East around 3 am, directly over the barn, so when I saw this meteor I recognized it right away as an Eta Aquariid, but I wanted to confirm it with a sky chart just to be sure (i’ve got a bad habit of mis-classifying some of my meteor photos!) . Here’s the picture layered over a start chart for that moment in time.

Eta Aquariid Meteor and Star Chart

The meteor shower will be active for the rest of the month, so I may get another chance to catch some more of these.

As time goes by and Comet Panstarrs flies deeper into the solar system, while it grows dimmer, its view-ability through a telescope is becoming increasingly better. Each day it rises higher in the morning sky and we have a few more minutes of visibility and time to image. I stepped up my exposure length this session, imaging each channel for 4 minutes. I was able to loop over these 5 times for LRGB and acquire 20 minutes of each channel. Turned out pretty good.

Comet C2011-L4-Panstarrs / April 18th, 2013

Photo Details

C/2011 L4 – Panstarrs
LRGB 4 minutes x 5 or 20 minutes each channel
Total exposure: 80 minutes
Camera: Apogee U16M
Guider: unguided image
Telescope: RCOS 14.5
Mount: Paramount ME
Location: Auberry, CA
Date: Apr 18, 2013
Software: The SkyX, MaximDL, FocusMax, CCDStack, Photoshop

The last week or two, there’s been a 45 minute window each morning to catch comet Panstarrs in the north east sky. I missed the western evening view in March, as it was to close too the horizon, but this morning north eastern view is working out pretty well. Here’s a 30 second X RGBL image of Comet Panstarrs.

Photo Details

C/2011 L4 – Panstarrs
LRGB 3o seconds Each
Total exposure: 2 minutes
Camera: Apogee U16M
Guider: unguided image
Telescope: RCOS 14.5
Mount: Paramount ME
Location: Auberry, CA
Date: Apr 10, 2013
Software: The SkyX, MaximDL, FocusMax, CCDStack, Photoshop

Here’s a photo of Comet Panstarrs and the Crescent Moon from earlier tonight in Monkton, Maryland.

Comet Panstarrs With Crescent Moon – March 12th, 2013 – Monkton, MD

Yesterday, February 15th, 2013 was an exciting day in the meteor world. Of course it started off with the the Russian Fireball that caused quite a stir (see American Meteor Society article on Russian Meteor)

Coincidentally, yesterday was also the day Near Earth Asteroid 2012DA14 passed by at 27,743 kilometers (17,239 mi) above Earth’s surface. I had wanted to image the asteroid last week, but due to it approaching from below the Earth, it was only visible from the southern hemisphere. By chance, I was up late last night doing some work on the scope and I had previously tagged the asteroid in the SkyX (telescope control program). I noticed it was out and realized that after its closest approach it was now moving away from northern hemisphere and thus I could see it nicely from California!

I shot the asteroid for about 2 hours. Here is a composite image of 20 2 minute frames. There is a short pause in between each frame. The asteroid appears to get brighter as it moves, but i think this is really just the effect of clouds / seeing in between the shots.

Near Earth Asteroid – 2012 DA14 – February 16th, 2013

Here is an animation of the same series of pictures.

Near Earth Asteroid – 2012 DA14 – February 16th, 2013

*The streak that appears towards the end of the animation above, I believe is a part of a satellite flare.

Also to note, the Asteroid 2012DA14 and the Russian meteor are NOT related. Below is a diagram of the orbits created by SETI which clearly shows how these two events could not be related to the same stream of meteoroids. See this graphic from SETI & Wired magazine, click graphic to read article.

Orbital trajectories and sizes of 2012 DA14 and the meteor that streaked across the Russian skies on Friday. Photo by: SETI Institute

I bought my first telescope before the new year of 2009 and took my first astrophoto on Jan 7th, of that year, literally 4 years ago today. The inspiration that compelled me to buy that telescope, look up at the sky and document what I saw is still going strong four years later and it kept me up until dawn last night imaging comet K5 Linear! This comet was discovered in May of 2012, went around the Sun in November and just past Earth a few days ago on December 31th missing us by a mere 28 million miles. Yesterday, January 6th was the feast of the Epiphany, a Christian Holiday celebrating the revelation that God was born as a human being in Jesus Christ. Many scholars hypothizize that the star that led the magi to Bethlehem to celebrate this revelation could have been a comet. For me astronomy, has been a great Epiphany and the joy that comes from learning about the Universe is all powerful and never ending. Peace to you in 2013!

Comet C/2012 K5 (Linear) – December 7th, 2013

Here is a brief tutorial on how to image comets.

Imaging comets is a little tricky because they are moving pretty quickly and you have to take short exposures or else the comet will streak through the picture. You can track the comet, but then the stars in the picture will streak. There are additional challenges when trying to get a color photo because by the time you cycle through the red, green, blue and luminance filters the comet has moved significantly enough to cause alignment issues within itself (not to mention the stars). Over time, I have learned a few tricks about imaging comets that I will explain here.

First, here’s the trick — to get your final nice comet image you need to be able to stack on just the comet in one picture while washing out all of the stars and then with another picture, you stack on the stars and wash out the comet. Once this is done you combine the two images into the final product. If you’re doing this for color, then its the same process you just have to do it 4 different times (once for each color channel RGB plus the clear Luminance filter). Now here’s the trick, in order to wash out the stars and the comet, there needs to be sufficient space in between the stars and objects in all frames — the stars can not overlap.  In order to run the error suppression routines, the stars must have spaces in between them.

Here’s an example of a single 60 second exposure using the Luminance filter. We will need 20 of these before the final luminance channel can be completed.

Single 60 Second Exposure of Comet 2012 K5 (Linear)

Knowing that we need to space out the exposures to allow the comet to move enough so that the stars don’t overlap in-between frames, the most efficient way to acquire the data is setting up a loop that switches filters in-between each exposure, for example: Red, Green, Blue, Lum, Dark, Pause, Loop x 20). I throw the dark in there because we will need to calibrate the pictures and this is a nice way to use some time and space it out a little more. The pause time may not be needed or it can be whatever is necessary to space out the comet in between frames. If you setup the acquisition routine like this with a 10 second pause there will be at least 5 minutes before each filter repeats.

Here’s an animation of 7 60 second luminance frames, each spaced out over 10 minutes, so this is 70 minutes of comet flight time. (If the image below is not moving, please give it a minute to load.)

Animation of Comet 2012 K5 (Linear) – 7 x 60 second Frames taken over 70 minute period

Now once we have collected our data if we were to align the frames centering on the comet itself and then stack without error reduction the image would look like this (note the spaces in-between the stars).

Comet K5 Linear Stacked Without Error Suppression

Using poison sigma error correction we can then wash out all of the stars during the stacking process. Poison sigma will essentially delete anything that is not the same between two frames, so if the stars are not touching they will be deleted.

Comet 2012 K5 Linear – January 7th, 2013 – 20 minute stacked exposure with star field eliminated

Once we have done this for all of our frames (Red, Green, Blue, Lum) we combine them to make the color image of the comet.

We can then re-align the frames on the stars and use the poison sigma error reduction to wash out the comet.

Color Star Field with Comet Washed Out

Now that we have our two color master frames, we can line them up together as layers in photoshop. Put the comet on top and then change the layer type to Luminosity and wa-la! The final comet image is ready! It took 80 pictures exposed for 60 seconds each to create this final image.

Comet C/2012 K5 (Linear) – December 7th, 2013

Photo Details
Comet 2012/K5 (Linear)
20×60 Seconds of LRGB Binned X 3
Total exposure: 1 hour 20 minutes
Camera: Apogee U16M
Guider: SBIG 402 with MMOAG Off Axis Guider
Telescope: RCOS 14.5
Mount: Paramount ME
Location: Auberry, CA
Date: 1/7/2013
Software: The SkyX, MaximDL, FocusMax, CCDStack, Photoshop

Comet C/2012 K5 (LINEAR) was discovered by Lincoln Laboratory Near-Earth Asteroid Research project in May of 2012. The comet is just now starting to get bright (magnitude 10) and is in a convient location for night time viewing. I spent a few hours last night checking out the comet and taking some photos. Here’s a color photo of the comet taken with 20 minutes of luminous data and 1.5 minutes of RGB data (30 seconds each). The comet is moving fast against the stars which makes imaging it a bit of a challenge. The trick is to filter out all of the star trails and just stack the comet, and then combine that with an RGB picture of the star field. Here’s my first attempt at this method.

Comet C/2012 K5 (LINEAR) – December 19th, 2012

 
Without the extra processing to remove the trailing stars, the image looks like this.
 

Comet C/2012 K5 (LINEAR) – December 19th, 2012

This comet can be seen with a low powered telescope, binoculars, or even a DSLR camera. Its currently inside the big dipper the next couple of nights. Refer to the star map below for placement over the next few months.

Star Map of Comet C/2012 K5

Star map courtesy of Seiichi Yoshida.

Update Dec 5, 2012 — After examining this meteor photo Bob Lunsford author of Meteors and How to Observer Them let me know that this is not actually a Leonid meteor, but rather a November Iota Draconids Meteor. Despite the fact that it occurred during the leonid meteor shower peak and actually appears inside the Constellation Leo, the meteor does not align with the Leo radiant, rather this meteor originates from the Draconid radiant.

I’ve been burning the candle at both ends, between astronomy and meteorite hunting not to mention my real job and home life. My wife went away for the weekend to visit with her family and I’ve been pulling Mr. Mom duty. Yes its tiring, but last night was the peak of the Leonids, the moon set early and there were no clouds. So I setup a camera on my balcony and went to bed early, but shot all night long. While reviewing the pics this morning, I was a little disappointed by the lack of meteors I had captured, that is until I came across this guy. I only caught 2 meteors the whole night, but it was worth it for this bright Leonid.

Leonid Meteor – November 17th, 2012

The picture above is a full resolution crop of just the meteor. Here is the full frame reduced in size.

Leonid Meteor – November 17th, 2012

Photo Details

Image taken with Canon 5d Mark II Camera and Canon 35mm f1.4 L USM EF Lens. Tripod mounted (no tracking) 25 second exposure @ ISO 400.

The Orionid Meteor Shower peaks this Saturday evening and Sunday morning! It was clear last night and I got some warm up practice time in. There wasn’t a lot of activity, but I did catch a pair of Orionid Meteors.

A Pair of Orionid Meteors – October 17th, 2012

Here’s a quick photo of Comet 168P/Hergenrother. This comet just reached its perihelion (closest point in orbit) on 1 October 2012. The photo below was created with a 1 minute exposure of RGB and 2 minutes of Luminance. There’s a good bit of noise in this image, but I figured out a bunch of tricks for taking and processing comet images while I was shooting this series. It was a productive session and my next round of comet photos should be much better. There’s a few tricks to photographing comets well (just like everything) and I look forward to shooting this guy again before he travels too far away. Check out the pair of faint distant galaxies in the lower right corner.

Comet 168P/Hergenrother – October 6th, 2012

And here’s an animation of 10 frames of the comet. Each exposure is 30 seconds and there is an aproximate 300 second break in between each frame.

Animation of Comet 168p/Hergenrother from October 6th 2012

Photo Details
Comet 168P/Hergenrother
RGB 60 seconds 120 seconds Lum
Total exposure 2 hours 30 minutes
Camera: Apogee U16M
Guider: SBIG 402 with MMOAG Off Axis Guider
Telescope: RCOS 14.5
Mount: Paramount ME
Location: Freeland MD
Date: 10/6/2012
Software: The SkyX, MaximDL, FocusMax, CCDAutoPilot, CCDStack, Photoshop

Near Earth Asteroid, 2012 QG42 was discovered on August 26th and will be passing Earth tonight, Thursday September 13th, 2012. Moving at 7 miles per second this asteroid is estimated to be 625 to 1,400 feet long. I was able to acquire the target last night and take a few pictures. Here’s an animation of 10 frames of the asteroid. Each frame is a 60 second exposure.

Near Earth Asteroid – 2012 QG42

 
Here is a composite image of the asteroid over the 10 minute period I was photographing it.

Near Earth Asteroid – 2012 QG42

I flew out to Fresno California to observe the Perseid meteor shower peak with Brendan Fallon my old friend, college roommate and meteorite hunting companion. We made it to the Yosemite National Park by early afternoon Friday, checked out the valley and scoped out possible locations for observing and photographing the meteor shower. Later in the day, we worked our way up to glacier point to observe the shower the night before the peak.

Mike Hankey with Perseid Meteor at Sentinel Dome, Yosemite National Park – August 12th, 2012

Glacier point is known as an astronomers hangout and many of the rangers recommended it to us as the place to be. I was surprised by how many people where there to watch the shower Everyone was talking about the shower and really excited about it . The San Jose Astronomical Society was hosting a star party on the ridge and over 100 people where there to see the show. We found a little area outside the fences on the edge of Glacier Point and setup our equipment with intentions of staying there all night. Camping is not allowed at attractions like Glacier Point but staying there all night, so long as you’re not sleeping or pitching a tent is totally fine. We were all setup a little before sunset and shot the skies with two cameras the entire night.

Composite Image of Perseid Meteor Shower – August 12th, 2012

I spent most of the night fiddling with the cameras and had less time to relax and observe the shower, but Brendan was able to kick back and counted over 100 meteors the first night. I was not keeping a good count, being distracted by technical devices, but registered about 50-60 meteors. We both stayed up the entire night, and as celestial fortune would have it, on this night and only this night the moon, the Pleiades, Jupiter, Venus and the Sun would all rise over half dome. We were in the perfect location to watch all of this along with thousands of shooting stars all over the place. It was amazing.

Moon Rise Over Half Dome – August 11th, 2012

After the sun rose around 7:00 AM we packed up our gear and slept for the rest of the day at a hotel an hour away from the park.

Glacier Point Camp Site – Aug 12th, 2012

On Saturday, we made our way back to Yosemite by 7:00 PM and headed straight for Sentinel Dome. The top of the dome is about an hour hike from the parking lot and we each had packs filled with camera equipment and camping gear. At the peak of the dome in the center of the space, there was a big rock with a leveled metal compass in the middle. It was the perfect perch for my portable astrotech pier and tracking mount.

A cool compass and some camera gear – August 12th, 2012

I was so amped to be on top of Sentinel Dome at 8,100 feet above sea level with 360 degree views of the entire park. It was amazing! After spending a night on Sentinel Dome I am convinced this is the BEST place on the planet to observe a meteor shower.

Composite Image of Perseid Meteor Shower – August 12th, 2012

Every landscape view was breath taking, the skies were as dark as I’ve ever seen and there were meteors everywhere every minute. What else could you ask for?

Perseid Meteor With Lone Pine Tree on Sentinel Dome – August 12th, 2012

I was much better about my counting this night and we played a counting game together, competing to see who would observe more meteors. Each time one of us saw a meteor we needed to say our count out-loud followed by the other persons count. It was a competition the entire night and helped keep us awake, alert and engaged in the shower. For the night of the peak I was able to count 250 meteors and Brendan counted 246.

Milkyway Galaxy with Perseid Meteor – August 12th, 2012

Sentinel Dome is harder to get to than Glacier Point and we thought we would have the whole place to ourselves, especially since no-one was there after sun-set, but believe it or not throughout the night, several parties arrived at the dome after dark. Some getting there as late as two or three in the morning. I was again impressed with how many people who were interested in the shower and dedicated enough to make it out. We all shared a common bond watching the shower together from one of the highest points in Yosemite park.

Milkyway Galaxy with Perseid Meteor – August 12th, 2012

That morning we watched the sun rise again and then hiked back to our car.
We were both exhausted and sleep deprived but still wide awake and pumped up from the adrenaline of the park, the meteors and the observing experience.

Sun Rise Over Half Dome Yosemite National Park – August 12th, 2012

To date, this is the very best meteor observing experience I have ever had and I am convinced Yosemite and specifically Sentinel Dome is the best meteor observing location in the world for viewing the Perseid Meteor Shower.

Mike Hankey in front of Sentinel Dome – August 13th, 2012

Sutter's Mill & Moon - May 4th, 2012

On April 22nd, 2012 a large daytime fireball raced across the California and Nevada skies at the early morning hour of 7:50 PST. Thousands of eye witnesses saw the fireball and about 100 reported it to the American Meteor Society. Two lucky folks captured the meteor on film. Lisa Warren from Reno Nevada was walking her dog, had her camera with her and was able to photograph the fireball as it came down. A few weeks later, a video of the fireball surfaced that was serendipitously captured by a film-maker that morning.

Using just the termination azimuth from Lisa Warren’s photo, meteor-radar experts Marc Fries and Rob Matson scanned the doppler radar looking for something odd. They found it, just over Coloma CA, a large abnormal doppler radar return over 8 miles long and 2 miles wide. This was in fact a cloud of meteorites falling to the ground.

Within less than 48 hours of the fall, meteorite hunter Robert Ward was under the radar return and found the first fragment at the Lotus Henningsen park in Lotus CA. As the hours and days went on, dozens of more fragments were recovered from the park and surrounding areas.

A meteorite fall like this happens in the USA only once every 1-2 years and this one in particular is very special because this specific type of meteorite is extremely rare. In fact, it is possible this is a new type that has never been classified. The rarity of this stone  not only puts a high scientific value on the fall, but also a high financial value. While I’m not in it for the money, I could not pass up an opportunity to find a meteorite and right now there is no better place on the planet to find a fresh meteorite than Coloma CA.

Cronan Ranch, Pilot Hill, CA - April 30th, 2012

I flew out with a friend on April 29th, exactly one week after the fall and stayed in a great cabin in Coloma along the American River right in the middle of the strewnfield. Before leaving I analyzed the witness reports and picture and determined a trajectory path that cut just south of the radar returns on a heading of 280º WNW. I studied the land and found Cronan National Park on the upper end of the strewnfield — this would be a perfect location to search and I knew stones had to be there. We searched this park the first day and the last day we were there.

By the second day I had connected with my meteorite hunting friend Larry Atkins and he invited me to join his group of meteorite hunters, which included Scott Johnson and Keith and Dana Jenkerson of KDMeteorites.com. We had a lot of fun hunting together and Dana had communicated with most of the landowners in the area and gotten permission to hunt 1000s of acres of private property. Getting search permission is one of the more time consuming and tedious aspects of meteorite hunting and it was great to have a pro taking care of this for us.  The group agreed targeting properties adjacent to areas where meteorites were already found was the best strategy. This made perfect sense to me and finds were being reported all around us, but try as we might we couldn’t make a find the entire week and most of the other guys had been there for 5 days before me.

One of the problems with this fall, is the fragments are very spread out. Only one meteorite is being found for every fifty acres searched. Dozens, possibly hundreds of meteorite hunters were scouring the entire area and making very few finds. The first three weeks most of the finds were coming from locals who have found the meteorites on their driveways and yards and meteorite hunters are having a very difficult time as brute force gridding and zombie hunting are simply not working. The hunting is very difficult because most of the ground is either 4 foot tall grass or woods. There is lots of poison oak and also briar patches, rattle snakes and mountain lions, oh my.

Team Coloma - Keith Jenkerson, Larry Atkins, Scott Johnson, Mike Hankey

On a typical day, we would wake up at dawn and usually be in the field searching between 8-9 and then work solid until 7 PM. I lost seven pounds while I was there.   At the end of each day we would head to a local tavern in Coloma called the Sierra Nevada House where the restaurant and bar was a meteorite party every night. Locals and hunters would show off and sell their finds, scientists, hunters and local finders would eat dinner together at big tables taking up the entire dining room. Local kids would come up to the meteorite tables asking, ‘can we see the meteorite’, their parents just as or more interested than them to examine and study the stones. The entire town of Coloma, known for the first discovery of gold in CA and responsible for the subsequent gold rush, was now experiencing a new kind of rush, a meteorite rush.

By the last day I was really tired physically and fatigued mentally. Long hours of draining work with no finds had taken their toll. I was also getting irritable and wanted to break away from everyone and go out on my own. Its not smart to hunt alone so I asked Larry Atkins to go with me and we would head back to the Cronan Ranch because I knew meteorites were there. As the week progressed and more finds were reported a line started to develop and this line went right through the ranch. I was more confident than ever meteorites were there and I was a little mad at myself for not just going with my gut originally. Here it was my last day, and I had only searched in the spot I favored once.

Keith Jenkerson and Larry Atkins Hunting Meteorites in Coloma CA, May 2012

While there are lots of benefits to hunting with a group and everyone in our group was smart, cool and easy to get along with, I was having some anxiety dealing with the group and overtime it was getting worse. One of the things bothering me (and others) was the split. The way this group worked was everything would be split evenly among all group members even if you made a find hunting away from the group. While there were some good reasons and logic backing this up, I found the concept to be socialistic. Having too many people in the group also diluted the shares to the point of it not being worthwhile. Many of the other groups out there work on the finders keep rule, which is of course the default meteorite hunting code of law. Without overriding finders keepers, with a split agreement, problems can occur within groups. Its unfortunate that selfishness and self gain are the primary motivators for most meteorite hunters and I must admit it was nice to not have to worry about this while hunting with this group. However, once personal gain is removed from any work equation motivation will be hit and things will breakdown. Personally I think there’s a middle ground in-between the finders-keepers and socialistic splits and this is how I will try to work in the future.

As the week progressed I started to feel like it was harder for me to find my mojo while hunting with the group. All people and living things emit energy that draws from, fuels and impacts our own energy. For me to get in the zone with meteorite hunting, I need to meditate , concentrate and focus and sometimes this can be difficult with lots of people around. With competing interests of where to hunt and what to do I was getting distracted and it was hard for me to concentrate. I had to break away from the group the last day and just do my own thing.

So Larry and I agreed to set out on our own and were in the field by early morning. We had a pre-determined path that would start on the north eastern end of the field at Magnolia Ranch, and then hug the river south until we got to the meteor trajectory line. As a meteoroid enters the atmosphere and fragments, the lighter stones fall first and get blown by the wind. The heavier stones continue on the trajectory farther and are blown less by the wind. By cutting across the strewnfield in a North to South manner all the way to the trajectory line we would greatly improve our chances of crossing paths with a meteorite.

Mike Hankey, Keith Mueller and Larry Atkins - May 5th, 2012

We first made our way down to the river and ended up running into a local named Keith Mueller. Keith had actually witnessed the fireball while fishing on 4/22. He described it as two fast moving fireballs that followed each other one after the other. The second was slightly lower in the sky than the first. Curiosity and amazement of the fireball led Keith  to the Cronan Ranch and it was his first day ever hunting meteorites. Larry and I talked to Keith for a while and explained to him what to look for and how to hunt. We also explained why this meteorite is so important to science. We parted ways Keith was heading north and we were heading south. About ten minutes later Keith ran back and caught up with us. He said, we ‘blew his mind’ and he had more questions. We talked for a bit and then I invited him to hunt with us.

We set out, and made our way to the up-down trail. This is a pretty tough trail and I was moving a little slow so I let Keith walk in front of me. I remember him saying, ‘Are you sure’, and I was like ya go ahead. Not five minutes later, when we got to the top of the hill, we were all clustered together and Larry cut left into a grassy field. Keith and I followed, not a foot apart and a second later, he says, ‘woa, is this one.’ At the time I was looking at the ground where the meteorite was, but Keith was blocking my view. As soon as he stepped away the meteorite was clear as day and amazingly obvious and remarkable. While I was disappointed I had given up this find to a complete stranger, the happiness that I had just to be part of a find and see a meteorite in situ for the first time in my life overwhelmed  any negative feelings or jealousy I had for Keith. Knowing that we had worked together to achieve success was more important than the individual accomplishment. We agreed that it was a group find and credit would be shared by all three of us, but because we had no prior agreement in place, both Larry and I had to accept that the rock was Keith’s property. As such, I had to buy the rock from Keith.

17.7g Sutters Mill Meteorite In Situ - May 5th, 2012

I believe that things happen for a reason and the Universe and coincidences and random events have meaning that can be interpreted and used to improve and guide our lives. I may have made a mistake, by not making a ‘deal’ with Keith before we started hunting together and thus failed over to the finders-keepers rule. I do regret not working out the business end of things before we stumbled on the stone, not because it cost me more money, but because the other members of our team who I worked with earlier in the week missed out on what would have been their cut. It was not intentional on my part, and while they understood, they were still disappointed.  For me financially, it didn’t make much difference. Had I done things right, Keith would have been the 7th member of the group and I would have still had to buy out 6/7ths of the group. I dont doubt or second guess myself or the  way this went down. I believe this experience was a test of my character and a learning experience but most importantly a way to get me back to California. They say the finder’s name of every meteorite is written on the stone before it falls to Earth. Keith’s name was on that stone, but my name is on another.

Congratulations to Robert Ward who found the first fragment from the April 22nd, California fireball earlier today. A meteorite recovery in just under 2 days is miraculous and a brilliant display of skill and knowledge. Credit is due also to Marc Fries who successfully identified and published the radar return on his blog. For more info, visit Marc’s Radar Meteorite site.