Photos show odd images near shuttle...

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | February 2, 2003 | David Perlman

[seraphMTH]

A San Francisco amateur astronomer who photographs the space shuttles whenever their orbits carry them over the Bay Area has captured five strange and provocative images of the shuttle Columbia just as it was re-entering the Earth's atmosphere before dawn Saturday.

[TominPA]

Tin foil hat on "High!"

Seriously, the possiblity that there were small parts already trailing the shuttle at that point is very real. Reentry is the most stressful point of any mission and if there was a structural failure the pictures should show what he says they do.

[AntiGuv]

Wouldn't this photographer "who photographs the space shuttles whenever their orbits carry them over the Bay Area" have some sense of whether these images were routine?

I'm not suggesting foul play, just to be clear.

[chance33_98]

Damn Aliens.

[sonofatpatcher2]

A very interesting shuttle tile is Here.

I can only post on Geocities and have little bandwidth to post, so perhaps someone can post it for me.

I inverted the photo on my computer and the writing reads:
V070-1911
-076 (or G) MN00

With these numbers, the tile should be traced to its exact location. It came from Kerens, Texas, 65 miles SE of Dallas and another tile is in Rice, Texas, 45 miles S of Dallas on I-45. If these tile came from under the left wing, that would place its failure at the top of the debris field.

[TominPA]

He must have had some idea that the shots were not routine since he's holding them very close to the vest. Sure hope the guys a NASA get a chance to examine those things after computer enhancement......

[Bullish]

Sure hope the guys a NASA get a chance to examine those things after computer enhancement......

Then they'll promptly vanish down the govt secret hole.

[TLBSHOW]

Come on this is from the SFgate a true liberal paper! Whacko paper!

[cricket]

"Sure hope the guys a NASA get a chance to examine those things after computer enhancement......"

Would guess they already have them. . .

Perhaps some tiles were already beginning to go and hence more heat generated/absorbed and so photographed as change in colorations et al.

[mikegi]

The pictures, taken with a Nikon 8 camera on a tripod, reveal what appear to be bright electrical phenomena flashing around the track of the shuttle's passage, but the photographer, who asked not to be identified, will not make them public immediately.

What's the point of keeping the photos private? Anyway, I wonder if there is a way to know if the "lightning bolt" was going towards the Columbia or came from the Columbia itself. If it was an electrical discharge of some kind, it seems like it would have caused problems that would have been detected by sensors in the electrical system.

[rintense]

Didn't NASA debunk the whole 'it broke apart over California' story saying the flashes that were seen were plasma flashes?

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

If these tile came from under the left wing, that would place its failure at the top of the debris field.

I would be very interested to hear if anyone finds a tile in the states of New Mexico, Nevada or California. That could shed some light on this indeed and indicate that something catastrophic was happening much earlier than initially thought.

[TwoStep]

**Bump**

[Yasotay]

Right after Sunday's Nasa briefing, CNN showed very good pictures of what appears to be ice (not insulation), during lift-off, breaking off and hitting the left wing. It is very clear that many people in CA saw the first parts of the breakup. I wonder if anyone got videos of the break-up with their telescopes?

[TLBSHOW]

Astronomer saw shuttle apparently in trouble over California

``In particular, there was one very clear event where there was a piece that backed off the orbiter. ... It was giving off its own light, then it slowly fell from visibility,'' he said.

Beasley said he thought the shuttle might be losing some of the heat-resistant tiles that protect it during the fiery re-entry. He said he did not learn of the shuttle's destruction until he went to the observatory and compared notes with two news photographers who had arranged to photograph the re-entry through a telescope.

Beasley said they compared notes and all agreed they had seen what he termed ``the bright event, the third event.''

``The analogy, I think, is it looked like the shuttle dropped a flare,'' he said.


http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/5083751.htm

[philetus]

one word:laser

[mrsmith]

"a lightning bolt "

"Admin moderator was with me the whole time officer!"

[kylaka]

I saw some good full motion video on the news this evening, which was taken in California, which shows the shuttle in the dark with a few large bright objects shedding from it, clearly separating from it and then fading in brightness as they trail away behind it. I'm sure this video will be shown more in the next few days.

[a_Turk]

'twas Zeus..