Empire Maker wins the Belmont; Funny Cide finishes five lengths back in third place. More shortly.

UPDATE: Here’s an MP3 file (947 KB) of the stretch call by Dave Johnson, Mr. “Down The Stretch They Come,” on ABC Radio.

Here’s a photo of Empire Maker beating out Ten Most Wanted at the wire:

In the evening on Easter Sunday, as she rested comfortably on her chair, Toby was suddenly and unexpectedly surrounded by a small army of Peeps.

Naturally, given her exemplary military record, Toby fought the Peeps off bravely.

Click here for a movie! (268 KB)

The #12-seed Butler Bulldogs are headed to the Sweet Sixteen — just like I predicted!

Butler beat Louisville today, 79-71, in its second straight upset. The Horizon League champion Bulldogs are the lone mid-major representative in the Sweet Sixteen, having vanquished Mississippi State of the SEC on Friday, and now Louisville of Conference USA.

More importantly, they’ve validated my latest Sweet Sixteen Cinderella pick, placing them alongside the Valparaisos, Gonzagas, Kent States, and Southern Illinoises of previous years.

After yesterday’s Gonzaga-Arizona game produced a video of Becky and me experiencing the agony of defeat, today we got to feel the thrill of victory instead. Here’s a video (.mov, 180 KB) of us reacting to Butler’s game-clinching basket and foul.

By the way, I picked Butler to win once more — advancing all the way to the Elite Eight. Which means, next weekend, I’ll be rooting hard against Oklahoma!

Becky, her parents and I were all huddled around the TV Saturday afternoon for the incredible ending of the double-overtime Arizona-Gonzaga game. Becky and I were rooting for Gonzaga; her parents were pulling for Arizona. I have a great video (.mov, 256K) of the final seconds. Here are three screenshots from that video:

Willing Gonzaga’s shot to fall… Watching, waiting and hoping… The agony of defeat.

Click here to view the whole video.

Better luck tomorrow, I hope, for my big Cinderella pick, Butler.

The Space Shuttle Columbia broke up on re-entry this morning over central Texas, 15 minutes or so before it was to land in Florida.

UPDATE, 7:31 AM: The shuttle was traveling six times the speed of sound at 200,000 feet when it broke up. Officials say it is “highly unlikely” this was terrorism. Given the altitude and speed, it seems to me that if it was terrorism, it would have had to have been a device planted on board before launch. No missile or airplane could have brought this thing down, unless Al Qaeda is much more advanced than we think.

I was originally planning to go out this morning and try to watch the shuttle’s re-entry from here in Los Angeles. It was to pass roughly 300 miles north of here, so it would have been a faint view in the northern sky. I was dissuaded from doing so by the webmaster of SpaceWeather.com, Dr. Tony Phillips, who told me in an e-mail that the shuttle would probably appear very faint from that distance, and would be difficult or impossible to see through the city’s light dome, especially since due north of USC is the skyline of downtown L.A.

So, instead of perhaps seeing some of the final peaceful moments of the Space Shuttle Columbia, I was alerted to this tragedy by a phone call from Becky at around 6:53 AM Pacific time — a scenario eerily similar to a certain Tuesday morning in September 2001, when Becky woke me at 6:50 AM with a breaking-news phone call.

UPDATE, 7:43 AM: CNN reports that the most sophisticated surface-to-air missiles is existence can only reach 60,000 feet. They confirmed my hypothesis that the only possible terrorist connection would be something placed on board the shuttle.

Meanwhile, Glenn Reynolds on InstaPundit.com is blogging about this, including the following observations:

Why it’s probably not terrorism: (1) if you planted a bomb, you’d want it to go off on takeoff — that’s when everyone is watching, and there’s less time for stuff to go wrong, since you’d have to wonder whether a bomb would work after spending an extended time in space; (2) it’s basically impossible to shoot down a reentering space shuttle because of its speed and altitude; (3) there are so many things that can go wrong with shuttles, especially Columbia, which is the oldest, without invoking terrorism. I suppose it’s conceivable that a saboteur did some sort of subtle structural damage calculated to cause this sort of a failure while remaining unnoticed during ground checks, but that strikes me as unlikely for a variety of reasons.

From the video it looks like structural failure, followed by an explosion as the spacecraft disintegrated. That’s unlikely to be the result of sabotage. Most likely it was failure in a wing spar or some other component, probably brought on by age and fatigue, though possibly caused by tile zippering and burn-through, or damage on launch. We’ll see. No point getting ahead of things here, but plenty of reason to think it’s not terrorism.

Reynolds also predicts that “this won’t traumatize people the way Challenger did” in part because “we’re at war now, and people’s calculations of such things — especially post-WTC — are different.”

So far, all SpaceWeather.com has is:

NASA has lost contact with the space shuttle Columbia. Check CNN and NASA for more information.

Dr. Phillips, the webmaster, was planning to try and watch re-entry from the San Francisco Bay Area this morning, so presumably he will post more later, perhaps with his thoughts from watching some of the shuttle’s final moments, if he was able to do so. (He would not have seen the explosion, but would have been watching it just a few minutes before.)

It will be interesting to see if Dr. Phillips or anyone else has videos or pictures of the shuttle over the Bay Area. It was supposed to be an excellent view from there, passing almost right overhead.

UPDATE, 8:00 AM: CBS is reporting that Barbara Morgan, schoolteacher Krista McAuliffe’s backup for the Challenger mission in 1986, is at Cape Canaveral today, and was scheduled to fly on Columbia in November.

CBS just got a prank call from some jackass in Texas claiming to have seen “Baba Booey’s teeth” in his backyard. He then called Dan Rather an “idiot.” Rather, slightly rattled, stated self-deprecatingly, “Well, it’s true that I’m an idiot, but that’s beside the point,” then apologized to the viewers for the prank call and moved on. (UPDATE, 2/6/03: Here’s a news article that mentions the prank call. Here’s a detailed play-by-play of what happened from an anti-Dan Rather website. And here’s a blog post about it. And apparently, MSNBC also got a prank call at around the same time. Here’s something about that.)

The flag at the Cape Canaveral landing site has just been lowered to half-staff, moving a CBS reporter to tears.

UPDATE, 8:05 AM: CBS points out that the astronauts on the International Space Station are due to return to Earth in March on Space Shuttle Atlantis, but if the shuttle is unable to launch because the investigation of this disaster is still underway and NASA doesn’t want to launch again yet, they can return via an emergency Soyuz re-entry vehicle if necessary.

CBS also notes that NASA, having lost another $3 billion shuttle, is now down to three shuttles.

UPDATE, 8:09 AM: Here is a map showing Columbia’s scheduled re-entry track.

There are various reports of shuttle debris being found on the ground in Texas. No word of injuries or damage yet. NASA is telling people not to touch any debris, because it could be toxic. (I’d think it might be a little hot, too.)

And now Israel suffers yet more national pain, as its first-ever astronaut, Air Force Colonel Ilan Ramon has died. (Interestingly enough, he participated in the 1981 mission to destroy Iraq’s nuclear weapons site.)

UPDATE, 8:15 AM: Dan Rather just nearly broke down into tears on the air.

UPDATE, 8:53 AM: I’m having trouble posting a copy of graphic here, but you can see the debris trail on radar. The best view is the Composite Reflectivity, Short Range Loop.

NBC is reporting that a heat-sensing satellite (which searches for missile launches, nuclear tests, etc.) spotted a burst of heat at Columbia’s location at the time of the breakup, suggesting that some sort of large explosion indeed occurred.

Meanwhile, in Nacogdoches, Texas, home of Stephen F. Austin University, all sorts of debris is being found. And in Plano, Texas, a piece of debris reportedly crashed into an apartment and caused a fire.

Nacogdoches is a city of 30,000, so it’s no surprise the earliest reports of damage are coming from there. Given that this is east Texas, I suspect the vast majority of debris will be found in isolated forests and fields. Thank goodness this happened over a mostly rural area instead of over, say, the Bay Area, which it flew over a few minutes earlier. Toxic, fiery debris falling from the sky over a large city could have been a major ground disaster as well as a spaceflight disaster.

UPDATE, 9:20 AM: I’m still working on the radar image, but here’s a photo of the shuttle breaking up:

More photos: 1 | 2 | 3

Meanwhile, Dr. Phillips, webmaster of SpaceWeather.com, has posted this Editor’s Note:

At the dawn of the space age some 40 years ago, we always knew who was orbiting Earth or flying to the Moon. Neil Armstrong, Yuri Gagarin, John Glenn. They were household names–everywhere.

Nowadays it�s different. Space flight has become more �routine.� Another flight of the shuttle. Another visit to the space station. Who�s onboard this time? Unless you�re a NASA employee or a serious space enthusiast, you might not know.

Dave Brown. Rick Husband. Bill McCool. Mike Anderson. Kalpana Chawla. Laural Clark. Ilan Ramon.

Now we know. These seven astronauts were tragically lost on Saturday, Feb. 1st, when the space shuttle Columbia (STS-107) broke apart over Texas.

Perhaps they were strangers to you before today. But if that’s so, why do you have a knot in your gut? What are those tears all about? Why do you feel so deep-down sad for seven strangers?

Astronauts have an unaccountable hold on us. They are explorers. Curious, humorous, serious, daring. Where they go, they go in peace. Every kid wants to be one. Astronauts are the essence of humanity�the good parts. They are somewhere inside each and every one of us.

They are not strangers. They are us.

Dave Brown asked yesterday, jokingly, �do we really have to come back?� No. But we wish you had.

The Science@NASA team extends its heartfelt sympathies to the family, friends and colleagues of the STS-107 crew.

UPDATE, 9:38 AM: Here’s an animated GIF of the radar:

The borders, cities, etc., do not appear because the radar is shrunk to half-size, but if you click on it, you can see everything in the full-size version.

UPDATE, 9:45 AM: The flag at half-staff at the Kennedy Space Center:

UPDATE, 10:17 AM: If I were NASA, I wouldn’t do any more missions in late January or early February. There have been three deadly accidents in the whole history of NASA, and all have happened within a calendar week: the Apollo 1 tragedy on Jan. 27, 1967; the Challenger tragedy on Jan. 28, 1986; and now, the Columbia tragedy on Feb. 1, 2003.

Jim Flowers’ Radio Weblog has set up a special section called Shuttle Lost documenting “how the blog community reacts” to this tragedy.

People are reacting on Fark.com, too. There are already more than 700 comments, and counting.

UPDATE, 10:24 AM: These poor folks lost a son on Sept. 11 and a niece on the Space Shuttle Columbia.

NASA is now giving a press conference. No big revelations yet.

UPDATE, 10:29 AM: “The loss of this valiant crew is something we will never be able to get over. … A more courageous group of people, you could not have hoped to know.” –NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe, barely holding back tears.

UPDATE, 10:36 AM: San Francisco TV station KPIX has an article about Bay Area residents watching the shuttle several minutes before it was lost. I’m still looking for pictures.

Now they’re saying it was moving at Mach 18.

UPDATE, 11:03 AM: President Bush is about to address the nation. CNN was just recalling Reagan’s famous “slipped the surly bonds of earth and touched the face of God” speech after the Challenger explosion.

UPDATE, 11:14 AM: “The same Creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls who we mourn today. The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth, yet we can pray that all are safely home.” –George W. Bush.

Not a great speech, but he did the job. You can’t envy him; I’ve always though mourner-in-chief is one of the president’s toughest roles.

UPDATE, 11:48 AM: In an article that attempts to put this tragedy into the context of the present national mood, the New York Times points out something that I, too, had noticed, but had been afraid to post here, lest I risk sounding glib:

In a twist of nomenclature that would seem implausible in fiction, a craft carrying Col. Ilan Ramon of the Israeli Air Force apparently broke up over an East Texas town called Palestine.

UPDATE, 12:55 PM: Here is an MP3 file of my wake-up call this morning — Becky calling me from Arizona with news about the space shuttle tragedy. I believe the call came at 6:53 AM. Just like on Sept. 11, the phone didn’t ring (or, I didn’t hear it), so she left a message, and the message woke me up.

(Update: It turns out I’m not the only blogger who got the news by phone today after an abortive attempt to go look at the shuttle. Nor am I the only one who was struck by the eerie similarity to 9/11.)

More recently, a comment from Becky via e-mail: “did you see poor george w. bush? he was all like, uh, something fell from the sky over texas and almost hit my ranch godammit.”

She added, “poor astronauts.”

UPDATE, 1:25 PM: Glenn Reynolds at InstaPundit has the following thoughts on the ongoing NASA press conference:

It looks like a zipper effect followed by burnthrough and structural damage, leading to the loss of the left wing. They’re reporting anomalous heat sensor readings, loss of tire pressure in the main gear on that side, and so on. The shuttle can tolerate the loss of a tile or two. But when the integrity of the tile cover is breached, tiles can be pulled off one after another — hence the term “zipper effect.” Then enough heat can penetrate through in sufficient quantity to destroy or weaken what’s underneath.

He also points out that many Iraqis are evidently celebrating the tragedy. Bastards.

UPDATE, 1:33 PM: Here’s the full text of Bush’s speech. And here’s Reagan’s speech from 1986.

The Poynter Institute has lots of useful resources. Here, too, are some more breaking news sources.

Here is somebody else’s archived animated GIF of the radar of the debris trail.

UPDATE, 1:45 PM: I need to take a break from posting now, and work on homework and such. I may post some further updates, but not as constant as it’s been this morning and early afternoon. In the meantime, for the latest photos related to the Columbia disaster, click here.

May the crew of Columbia rest in peace.

Water erupts from the Spouting Horn, a sort of tidal geyser forged by volcanic rock, on Dec. 22. Here’s a video, with sound, of the Sprouting Horn (244 KB). At the same location, we saw another type of spout — from a whale. Two or more whales, actually — humpbacks, we believe.

USC destroyed UCLA on Saturday, 52-21, which can only mean one thing: we now love the Bruins.

Why? Because if UCLA beats Washington State in two weeks, USC wins the Pac-10 championship, and we get to return to the Rose Bowl (site of our triumph today) for the Granddaddy of Them All on January 1. So, say it with me, Trojan fans: Let’s go Bruins! Let’s go Bruins!

Ah yes, and can’t you hear the UCLA coaches now? “C’mon guys, let’s go out there and win one for the Trojans!”

Okay, maybe not. But anyway, enough about the future. (More on that later.) Let’s talk about today’s game!

Trojan head coach Pete Carroll gets carried off the field after the Trojans’ triumph.

As impressive as a 52-21 final score is, it really wasn’t even that close. USC led 52-7 late into the fourth quarter, but allowed the Bruins to score two late touchdowns during garbage time to make it look slightly less humiliating. (That’s probably just as well. We wouldn’t want our arch-enemies/new best friends to be too demoralized going into our, I mean their, big game against Washington State!)

Needless to say, the game was, as they say here in Southern California, hella awesome. USC jumped out to an early lead — and when I say “early,” I mean we were ahead by seven points 16 seconds into the game — and never looked back.

At the start of the first quarter, the Trojans won the coin toss and elected to kick. Good decision, since UCLA’s genius kickoff returner promptly fumbled, giving USC the ball at the Bruin 34 yard line. Should-be Heisman Trophy winner Carson Palmer wasted no time: on the game’s first play from scrimmage, he threw a beautiful 34-yard touchdown pass to Kareem Kelly. Trojans 7, Bruins 0, 14:44 left in the first quarter.

Many Trojan-Bruin games have been decided on the last play; this one, arguably, was decided on the first play. UCLA never seemed to recover from the shock of falling behind so quickly and dramatically. Before five minutes were gone, USC led 14-0. Before ten minutes had been played, Trojans were up 21-0. This was never a close game.

With USC leading 52-7, a Trojan fan mockingly imitates the Bruins’ favorite anti-USC gag, the waving of the car keys (to suggest we’re just a bunch of rich kids).

UCLA cut it to 21-7 early in the second quarter, but USC increased its edge to 28-7 four minutes before halftime, the first seven of what would be 31 unanswered points. The Trojans were ahead 52-7 before UCLA finally scored again, with 2:47 left in the game. By that point, needless to say, USC’s garbage-time squad was on the field, consisting of various freshmen, walk-ons, and quite possibly a few band members and cheerleaders. The Bruins scored once more with a minute to go; hence the 52-21 final score.

It was perhaps the most fun I’ve ever had at a USC football game — the only competition being the 1999 UCLA game at the Coliseum, after which we stormed the field in celebration of the Trojans’ first win over the Bruins since 1990. (USC is now a perfect 4-0 against UCLA since I enrolled here.) Today, for my first-ever trip to the Rose Bowl, I went with Becky’s ex-roommate Rachel and three other friends, Nicole, Steven, and Jen. We had a blast.

Steven, Rachel, Nicole, Jen, and me.

For a whole big gallery of photos — and videos!!! — from the game, click here! (You can also view photos and videos from the big pre-game bonfire on the USC campus Thursday night!)

Now, about those bowl scenarios…

Washington, my ex-roommate Dave’s school and, ahem, my new favorite team, gave USC a huge assist this evening by beating Washington State, previously undefeated in the Pac-10, 29-26 in triple overtime. The end of the game was a bit controversial; click here to hear an MP3 sound recording of the call from the Washington State football radio station on the game’s wild final play.

But anyway, that doesn’t matter to us. What matters is this: Washington State is now 6-1 in the conference with one game left. USC is 7-1, and done with its conference schedule. Unfortunately, because our one conference loss was to — you guessed it — Washington State, we lose the tiebreaker if they finish 7-1 also. So that means they need to lose again for us to win the conference title. Hence our newfound love for UCLA.

The Cougars-Bruins game is at the Rose Bowl on Dec. 7, so hopefully the Bruins will have recovered their psychological strength after today’s devastating loss and will be able to pull off the upset at home. If not, it’s hello, Holiday Bowl for USC… unless we are invited to a BCS bowl, which remains a distinct possibility if we beat Notre Dame next weekend. (Although, it is also distinctly possible that the Orange/Sugar Bowl bastards will give Notre Dame the at-large spot even if we beat them, just because the Irish will attract a bigger crowd and thus put more money in the bowl’s coffers. More on that here.)

One more thing before I stop wasting time posting to my website. :) I was wondering: at 9-2 and ranked #8 in the BCS standings, does USC still have a mathematically possible outside shot at the national championship? Well, let’s see…

Ohio State won today, 14-9 over Michigan, finishing its undefeated regular season and clinching a spot in the national-championship Fiesta Bowl. That means there’s only one open spot left in the title game. Miami, also undefeated at the moment, is the odds-on favorite to get it. But if the Hurricanes were to lose both of their next two games (against Syracuse Nov. 30 and Virginia Tech Dec. 7), they’d be a two-loss team just like the Trojans (assuming, of course, that USC beats Notre Dame next weekend, which is obviously necessary for any of this to be relevant). Because Miami’s “strength of schedule” rating is so much lower than the Trojans’ (whose schedule is ranked the toughest in the country), a two-loss USC would almost certainly be ranked ahead of a two-loss Miami.

So what about the other teams? #3 Washington State now has two losses, so they should tumble in the polls, and could certainly wind up behind the Trojans — definitely so if they lose to UCLA. #4 Oklahoma has only one loss, but two tough games left — against Oklahoma State Nov. 30 and Colorado Dec. 7. Lose one, and the Trojans might leapfrog them. Lose both, and the Trojans definitely move ahead of ‘em. Next is #5 Georgia, another one-loss team; the Bulldogs have only one game left, Nov. 30 against Georgia Tech, so we definitely gotta root for those Yellow Jackets. #6 Notre Dame is no problem; if we beat them, we’ll move ahead of them in the standings.

But what about #7 Iowa? The Hawkeyes may be our biggest problem. Iowa has only one loss, and they’re already done with their season. If all of the above happened, would the computers and the pollsters pick a two-loss USC over a one-loss Iowa for the #2 spot and the Fiesta Bowl berth? The computers might; USC’s strength of schedule is much better, and Iowa is probably about to lose its “quality win” points (because Michigan looks to call out of the BCS Top 10), whereas USC might conceivably gain a “quality win” if Colorado (whom we crushed earlier in the season) wins its last two and moves into the Top 10. But the pollsters could be harder to convince. Iowa is presently ranked more than two places higher in the human polls than it is in the computer polls — that is to say, the voters seem predisposed to like the Hawkeyes — and the voters would love to create an Iowa-Ohio State championship game, since that would settle the big unanswered question in the Big Ten (the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes never met this year, and both finished undefeated in the conference). Moreover, if UCLA fails to pull the upset over Washington State, USC would have the pariah status of not being a conference champ, something the voters don’t like, as last year’s Nebraska fiasco proved.

So, more likely than not, it seems to me that the best USC could finish, even if Miami and all these other teams suddenly fell apart, would be #3 in the BCS poll, giving us an automatic “at large” BCS bowl berth even if we don’t win the conference, but no shot at the title game. (Although, if Iowa were to beat Ohio State unconvincingly in the Fiesta Bowl while USC crushed its bowl opponent, AP voters might conceivably award the Trojans a split championship. But now we’re definitely getting ahead of ourselves.)

But anything is possible; computers and voters are both hard to predict, especially when you’re dealing with such far-out hypotheticals. Trojan fans’ best hope is to root against Miami, Oklahoma, Georgia, and of course Washington State (Go Bruins! Go Bruins!), and also hope that Iowa’s nonconference opponents — Akron, Miami of Ohio, Iowa State and Utah State — lose a bunch of games, thus further hurting the Hawkeyes’ strength-of-schedule rating. (Good news on that front: Iowa State, the one team that beat Iowa this year, was stunned today by, of all schools, UConn! Yeah, here at USC, we love all teams called “Huskies”!) We should also root for the nonconference teams we played: Auburn, Colorado and Kansas State. (Good news there, too: they went 3-0 today, including Auburn’s big upset win over Alabama, which also serves to take away quality-win points from Oklahoma and Georgia, as Alabama will now fall out of the Top 10. Hooray!)

Okay, enough pontifficating on college football. I’m pretty sure I recall a certain darling girl named Becky requesting that I wash some dishes. :)

UPDATE, 11/24/02 1:16 AM: Further research has revealed that Akron, Miami, Iowa State, Auburn, and Kansas State are all done with their seasons. But we can still root for Middle Tennessee State against Utah State next weekend… and, of course, for Colorado (our best hope for quality-win points) against Nebraska on Friday and, most importantly of all, against Oklahoma on Dec. 7. It also wouldn’t hurt if, just for kicks, Alabama lost to Hawaii next weekend and Texas lost to Texas A&M.

UPDATE, 11/24/02 1:49 PM: The new sportswriters’ poll and the new coaches’ poll both have USC ranked #6 in the country, behind Iowa, Oklahoma and Georgia. (The AP has Oklahoma #3 and Iowa #4; the Coaches have Iowa #3 and Oklahoma #4. Both have Georgia #5.) Washington State dropped from #3 in both polls to #9 in both — which, I have to say, really isn’t fair… they’re still a really good team who just happened to lose in triple-overtime to an archrival last night. Maybe the coaches and writers are punishing the Cougars for the fact that their star quarterback, Jason Gesser, was injured, and his status is uncertain for the rest of the season, clouding the Cougars’ bowl prospects. That wouldn’t really be fair either, but whatever. It helps the Trojans, so I ain’t complaining. Anyway, the new BCS rankings won’t come out until tomorrow, but they will probably be pretty much the same on the top six teams, except Notre Dame (#7 in both polls) might be ahead of USC, putting the Trojans seventh. If so, USC will have a chance to deal with that next weekend. It’s also worth noting that all four of the Trojans’ nonconference opponents are now ranked in the Top 25: Notre Dame (#7), Kansas State (#8), Colorado (#13 in the AP and #15 in the Coaches), Auburn (#20 in the AP and #25 in the Coaches).

UPDATE, 11/24/02 4:44 PM: Click here for a photo gallery from the USC-UCLA game!

UPDATE, 11/24/02 10:02 PM: The East Coast Bias slowly subsides — CNNSI now has USC quarterback Carson Palmer ranked #4 on its Heisman Watch, and says he is one of five serious contenders for the trophy. Meanwhile, East Coast Bias is unheard of at The New York Times, where the computer ratings continue to rank USC #3 in the country. In fact, the Times computer almost puts the Trojans ahead of undefeated Ohio State! Miami has a perfect 1.000 rating, Ohio State is second with 0.974, and USC is just .004 points behind, with 0.970. For comparison, Georgia is a distant fourth with 0.918. I wonder… if USC beats Notre Dame, will it move ahead of Ohio State in the Times ratings?

I’ve got more videos and photos from Tuesday morning’s Leonid meteor shower!

At right is an animated GIF clip of a meteor that was sighted at 2:26 AM. Click here for the AVI version of the movie, which shows a much wider view than the narrow strip at right.

Below are two still images of meteors — the first at 2:19 AM, the second at 2:26 (the same meteor as the one shown in the movie at right).

And here’s another animated GIF, this one showing a meteor just to the right of Jupiter:

I hope to add still more meteor shots, plus a photo gallery from Becky’s and my drive to and from Joshua Tree National Park, in the coming days. Stay tuned!