en français Dear Sir/Madam, Thank you for your inquiry on celestial phenomena/meteors, and for your interest in the National Research Council of Canada NRCC. **** While no one at NRC deals with this topic, another agency does. The Meteorites and Impact Advisory Committee [MIAC] of the Canadian Space Agency [CSA] actively encourages the public to forward enquiries or records to the active scientists in MIAC. Additional information such as mathematical formulae can be found in the Handbook of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, and in the Astronomical Phenomena Yearbook published by the US Naval Observatory and the UK Royal Greenwich Observatory. **** WHO TO CONTACT ? **** What to do? The following suggestions, based on effectiveness and minimal costs, may be of help to you: - if your sighting is DANGEROUS to humans, please contact your local RCMP. - if your sighting could HELP in a later meteorite recovery, please contact Dr. Jeremy Tatum at universe@uvvm.uvic.ca and be sure to look up the MIAC web page and answer the questions: http://wwwdsa.uqac.uquebec.ca/~mhiggins/MIAC/fireball.htm http://miac.uqac.ca/MIAC/MIAC.html **** The Meteorites and Impact Advisory Committee [MIAC] of the Canadian Space Agency [CSA] actively encourages the public to forward enquiries or records to the active scientists in MIAC. - if your sighting has been followed by a meteorite RECOVERY ON THE GROUND, please contact: Dr. Richard Herd, Geological Commission of Canada, Curator, Nat. Coll., Natural Resources Canada, 601 Booth St., Ground floor, Rm G85, Ottawa, Ont., K1A 0E8 herd@nrcan.gc.ca tel:1-613-992-4042 fax:1-613-954-0481 - if all you want is a SUGGESTION on a possible explanation, based on Earth physics, atmospheric physics, plasma physics, astrophysics, you can contact the: Director, Physics Department, at your nearest University. Please try to answer the questions attached below, when contacting your university; - otherwise, please contact directly the National Archives of Canada, 395 Wellington St., Ottawa, Ont. tel: 1-613-995-5138
UFO Questionnaire with example: When contacting an expert, Please try to tell a bit more about the astronomical/atmospheric windows at the time. This would help to narrow down the possible models. Date of phenomena/Time: 25 August 1999/15h Earth Longitude: (Greenwich =0) 123 W degrees Earth Latitude: 53N degrees Area location of observer: Prince George, BC - Frazer River Cloud coverage: location/motion unknown - probably clear Altitude of object: Unknown - probably not so high Location of object: West sky Direction of object: Stationary for some time Then veered after a plane Description of object: size/brightness/motion/duration very bright star Sound associated with event: none reported ---------------------------------------------------- Sunrise/sunset: 5h07h am; 19h15 Moon: location, brightness rise 17h40m, 2h05m am 70% of disk illuminated Venus; location/brightness Rises 2h am, many hours before the sun, East Jupiter: location/brightness sets 2 am, West Meteor: none Bright star(s): None visible during the afternoon - too much brightness from the Sun Would not have veered and followed a craft. Aircraft: Helicopter at a distance always possible at low altitude, Balloon: time since sunrise/sunset; duration scientific balloon always possible at low altitude, You may wish to check a local university physics department. Flares dropping from an aircraft: no slowly moving flares seen Atmospheric plasma: always possible, but would not be pointlike.
Want some human perspectives? Here are two: short and clear, long and complete.