Saturday, January 06, 2007

Quirky Rock Out of Space Part 3: The Prequel

Chrispy will leave no stone unturned (no pun intended) to bring some fun to HPL's legacy. Here is an excerpt (a full report in comments) of the 1829 Deal, NJ meteorite.

As an aside, I have thought a lot about what meteroite influenced the story Colour Out of Space - one of my favorites. I am still undecided.

Digging through the books at The Book Cellar in New Hope, PA, Gordon Bond (AAI) came across a copy of the Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society for July, 1941. Among the articles was “The Deal Meteorite” by Henry Herpers of the Field Museum in Chicago.

This piece featured a meteorite which fell on Deal, NJ in Monmouth County on August 15, 1829. While there have been other meteorite falls in NJ claimed in subsequent years, this remains the sole documented event in the state’s history. The New Jersey Eagle newspaper, printed in Newark, gave this account:

“About 1 o’clock, on Friday morning last, when the sky was perfectly clear, a meteor of unusual and intense brightness was observed in New York. It shot up from the west and illuminated the city with excessive light. A stream of firey particles followed in its train, tapering off to a point like a cone. After transversing about 20 degrees of the horizon with prodigious swiftness, it disappeared as suddenly as t had blazed upon the sight.” The Morristown Jerseyman of August 16 described: “About twelve o’clock last night many of our citizens were roused from their slumbers by a report similar to the discharge of a piece of heavy artillery succeeded immediately by a whizzing noise resembling that made by a cannon ball passing through the air. Some two or three persons who saw the meteor described it as being a large ball of fire passing rapidly theough the air a little south west of this village.”

According to the article, the bulk of the recovered meteorite (20.80 grams) resides in the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Bits of it were also sent to what is now the Smithsonian, The Field Museum, Paris, New York, Calcutta, London, Berlin, Rome and Vienna - everywhere, it seems but New Jersey! However, the State Museum in Trention would appear to have procured a nice piece since then.
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Chris Perridas said...

Link:
http://cc.msnscache.com/cache.aspx?q=5046344475115&lang=en-US&mkt=en-US&FORM=CVRE

Star’s Eye View!

The Deal on the Deal Meteorite

THE WANDERER’S HEART The Physics Department of Fairleigh Dickinson College (Teneck, NJ) have offered to donate a 12.5” telescope mirror to the UACNJ with a rather interesting history.

It had formed the heart of a telescope built in the 1930s for Farliegh Dickinson University. The instrument weighed in at some 2,500 pounds! When the Rutherford Campus closed, it was destroyed along with the observatory. Fortunately, a physicist from the college had rescued not only the mirror, but much of the instrument’s documentation!

More information will be made available

GREENWOOD MAINTENANCE The drive has been removed from the 16” Greenwood telescope for maintenance. A new Feather Touch focuser and Telrad have been purchased and have been installed by members of AAAP. Kevin Conod has donated a new finder scope.

TUTHILL SCOPE It has been estimated that the cost of refurbishing the trailer-mounted Tuthill telescope will be $1,000.

WORK SESSIONS Work sessions are being planned for late August to September to complete the last two observatories. New doors are needed and the tracks for the roll-off roofs need to be installed.

DISPLAYS The “New Jersey’s Astronomical Heritage” backlit display has been installed and work has begun on the display containing a microscope and video monitor for getting a close up look at meteorites. Alan P. Witzgall (AAI, NJAA) has donated specimens including bits of the Moon, Mars and asteroids Eros and Vesta.

Track lighting has also been installed by Dave Malpas in the displays room which help give the facility a nice look!

Thanks also to Walt Rauthog for his donation of an Eisenhower silver dollar which includes lunar design elements.

PROJECTS UPDATE

Digging through the books at The Book Cellar in New Hope, PA, Gordon Bond (AAI) came across a copy of the Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society for July, 1941. Among the articles was “The Deal Meteorite” by Henry Herpers of the Field Museum in Chicago.

This piece featured a meteorite which fell on Deal, NJ in Monmouth County on August 15, 1829. While there have been other meteorite falls in NJ claimed in subsequent years, this remains the sole documented event in the state’s history. The New Jersey Eagle newspaper, printed in Newark, gave this account:

“About 1 o’clock, on Friday morning last, when the sky was perfectly clear, a meteor of unusual and intense brightness was observed in New York. It shot up from the west and illuminated the city with excessive light. A stream of firey particles followed in its train, tapering off to a point like a cone. After transversing about 20 degrees of the horizon with prodigious swiftness, it disappeared as suddenly as

it had blazed upon the sight.” The Morristown Jerseyman of August 16 described: “About twelve o’clock last night many of our citizens were roused from their slumbers by a report similar to the discharge of a piece of heavy artillery succeeded immediately by a whizzing noise resembling that made by a cannon ball passing through the air. Some two or three persons who saw the meteor described it as being a large ball of fire passing rapidly theough the air a little south west of this village.”

According to the article, the bulk of the recovered meteorite (20.80 grams) resides in the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Bits of it were also sent to what is now the Smithsonian, The Field Museum, Paris, New York, Calcutta, London, Berlin, Rome and Vienna - everywhere, it seems but New Jersey! However, the State Museum in Trention would appear to have procured a nice piece since then.

A copy of the article has been given to the History of Astronomy in NJ project.

Ever wonder what Jenny Jump would look like looking down at it instead of up from it? Professional pilot Alan Midkiff gave Barry Malpas and Dr. Mary Lou West a chance to find out last July 28th when he flew them in his private plane over both Jersey StarQuest and Jenny Jump. Barry took the images shown here and they can be seen in color on the UACNJ website. Progress at JJ may seem slow sometimes, but this overview shows just how much we’ve accomplished!

Sat Jan 06, 11:47:00 AM

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