S.F. man's astounding photo Mysterious purple streak is shown hitting Columbia

San Fran Chronicle ^ | February 5, 2003 | Sabin Russell

[KneelBeforeZod]

Top investigators of the Columbia space shuttle disaster are analyzing a startling photograph -- snapped by an amateur astronomer from a San Francisco hillside -- that appears to show a purplish electrical bolt striking the craft as it streaked across the California sky.

[JZoback]

Very interesting

I would assume a lightning bolt could hit something moving at 12,500 MPH at 200,000 feet up ???

[bewildered]

Very interesting. I wonder why this news isn't covered by Fox or something.

[Rain-maker]

Where's the pic?

Purples and yellow tinges have been known to be caused by devloping and processing. I would not put any assumptions into it without seeing it, and have experts look at the negatives.

Otherwise it's worse than "three headed alien baby attacks Sweden" picture, considering no one has even seen it.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

It looks like Drudge found another big one. However, just like Alligator Alley, the feds will defang this one, too, more than likely. It was an accident. This was just an optical illusion. Or the photographer gets smeared. Or God knows what they might do. I wonder how many innocent peoples' reputations get damaged or destroyed that way every year?

[Timesink]

Hmmm. A digital picture, and one he's willing to let a reporter look at, but not print.

I'll believe it when a) I see it, and b) Kodak takes a look at it and certifies it as being legit and not a Photoshop job.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Remember when Fox News reported the radioactive ship in New York, when NEST was called in? Remember when Fox News reported Alligator Alley? The feds pull the rug out from under them every time and make them look like fools.

[fightinJAG]

Isn't this photo digital? Therefore, not processed and developed?

[fightinJAG]

He's not willing to release it UNTIL NASA has had a chance to thoroughly review it. Standard Ops during an on-going investigation.

[stlnative]

Fox did cover it the other day... but I have not heard any more about it since then. They showed the pictures or video on Fox, and they talked to the guy by phone. He was claiming that it appears that something hit the shuttle and that he could not release anymore information under the request of Nasa, he only said that Nasa was very interested in what he had and that he had sent some of it to them already.

He explained to Fox that he knew someone that knew someone at Nasa and that was how he was getting his information to Nasa. I bet the person mention above is the same guy that Fox talked to the other day. What I saw on FOX made it look like something did hit the shuttle while it was over California (where this person was from who had the pictures or video)

[Lion's Cub]

I first heard of this story on another thread, but this is the first I've seen it.

Late Tuesday, NASA dispatched former shuttle astronaut Tammy Jernigan, now a manager at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, to the San Francisco home of the astronomer to examine his digital images and to take the camera itself to Mountain View, where it was to be transported by a NASA T-38 jet to Houston this morning.

From what I heard earlier, this happened when the shuttle first came over California. Some kind of ground or space-based laser? Something with the design stolen from Livermore? Some experimental thing that was on the aircraft and automatically fired when the shuttle began to overheat?

[Rain-maker]

Is this going to be like that Israeli media picture of a damaged shuttle wing, that turned out to be a picture of the cargo bay?

Purple Fringing (Chromatic Aberrations) Nikon Coolpix Models

Good news, it looks as though the engineers at Nikon have finally got on top of the purple fringing problem. Some previous Coolpix models suffered from purple fringing (to differing degrees), the 4500 exhibits only the slightest hint of a fringe (nothing you would normally see). We have no way of knowing if this improvement has been made in the lens, coatings or software but sufficient to say it's a considerable step forward.

 

 

Artifacts and Highlights
For discerning photophiles, a new concern appeared with the release of the 2-megapixel generation of cameras: Those units, as well as the 2.5-and 3.3-megapixel products that followed, have had troubles with chromatic aberration -- purple fringe artifacts that show up in areas of extreme contrast. Though not always a problem in everyday snapshots, in outdoor shooting chromatic aberrations can be very distracting.

In our tests, both cameras produced chromatic aberrations similar to other cameras in their class, but neither camera seemed markedly worse than the other.

For most shooting situations, you probably won't notice a great deal of chromatic artifacts and fringes. Bright highlight areas -- such as backlit building or trees, or highlights off of highly reflective surfaces -- may show some purple or blue blooms. Unfortunately, it appears that for the time being, that's simply the case with this class of digital camera.

[Rain-maker]

Yeah digital, Coolpix model subject to chromatic aberrations too. see above.

[KneelBeforeZod]

good catch.

[laredo44]

I would assume a lightning bolt could hit something moving at 12,500 MPH at 200,000 feet up ???

Those mph and altitude #s refer to the shuttle over Texas. What were they over Calif.? And how high does lightning go?

[Skooz]

It's too early in the morning for this. I thought the title read: Mysterious purple steak is shown hitting Canada.

[Arkie2]

The article says it's a digital image.

[dep]

no, the streak that hit canada is yellow.

dep

[Jarhead_22]

See? The same CFR/Bilderberger/Trilateralists that shot down TWA 800 got Columbia too!

And they said I was paranoid...[/LSD]