(meteorobs) black meteor repost

-----c-HArlie charlies at junct.com
Mon Nov 29 14:30:07 EST 2004


Unless you have a companion(or video evidence) who is also seeing the 
same black meteors, I'll assume you are noticing a mechanism of the eye. 

Norman is probably seeing the blind spots in the center of his eyes.  
It's nearly impossible to keep your eyes from moving, so as Norman 
notices the blind spot it moves across his vision and a black spot 
appears to move across the star field.

One of the most dramatic experiments to perform is the demonstration of 
the blind spot
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chvision.html

http://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/blind_spot.html
http://coglab.wadsworth.com/experiments/BlindSpot/
http://library.thinkquest.org/J002330/

need more?
http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl/search/web/%2527blind%2Bspot%2527%2Beye

Charlie

Norman W. McLeod III wrote:

> At 09:39 AM 11/20/2004, you wrote:
>
>> Could you "discuss" the black meteor briefly again Norman; or anyone 
>> else.
>> I've read and long thought that this was simply something similar to 
>> a floater in the eye.  Thanks.
>>  
>> Long trains,
>>      Jeff W.
>
>
> Here is a partial repost I did on 7 Feb 1999 concerning black 
> meteors.  Their frequency seems less that what I originally wrote.  I 
> have heard several possible explanations for them but am not satisfied 
> with any.  Repost begins next :
>
> I watched the Perseids of 1960 for a couple of hours at max with my 
> best friend at the time.  Late in the second hour I was astonished to 
> see what looked like a meteor with no color at all, and my 
> announcement of having just  seen a black meteor got us both 
> laughing.  It wasn't fatigue-induced either, for I was fully alert.  
> Turns out I have generally seen one, sometimes two, during most of my 
> observing sessions.  Over the years the appearance of black meteors 
> has been linked to fatigue a number of times, but that hasn't been the 
> case with me.  Too bad I haven't been recording them.
>
> Our reasoning with joviality  was that meteors come in all colors, so 
> why not black ones?  The ones I see are generally Geminid speed with 
> the moving body visible as a point.  I even get an impression of 
> magnitude from them,  perhaps from the size of the black spot compared 
> to the size of star glare.  The majority are magnitudes  +1 to +3 and 
> travel an average of 10 degrees.  I have never seen one move so fast 
> that only a streak was visible (as in the majority of short fast 
> meteors), nor have I ever seen one leave a train (black or 
> otherwise.)  They seem very real to me, but all these years the 
> situation has been a joke.  Perhaps it's time to reconsider?
>
> Nebulous meteors are plenty real.  Most of them have a bright central 
> body surrounded by an ethereal envelope, and the ones that are also 
> carrying a wake look like moving comets.  Very rare are the ones that 
> have an appearance like a moving planetary nebula with no central 
> body.  In nearly all cases the meteors are slow.  I always mention 
> these in my notes.
>
> Norman
>
>
>
> Norman W. McLeod III
> Staff Advisor
> American Meteor Society
>
> Fort Myers, Florida
> nmcleod at peganet.com
>
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