(meteorobs) Meteor Trail?

Lewis J. Gramer lgramer at upstream.net
Fri Sep 24 12:54:32 EDT 2004


Peter Brunone asked (in an off-topic thread with another Subject line - Peter, don't
forget to change Subjects when you change topics! ;->) about this report from Mojave
Desert, USA. It is POSSIBLE that this was a meteor "smoke trail", reflecting the sun
light - but only if this were a truly remarkable fireball! Or just POSSIBLY it was a
glowing persistent train (which as many 'meteorobs' readers will know, is an effect
that can be produced by even relatively faint meteors in a dark night sky - but to
see a train in bright twilight, again it has to result from a very bright fireball.)

Finally, of course, it was by far the most likely that this WAS a contrail - perhaps
related to the boom that Jim and his son heard a minute or so later, and perhaps not?


Just a few questions, Jim - was the glowing trail in the West, or the East? And at
about what altitude (in degrees) above the *horizon* did you see it? (A true meteor,
seen closer to horizon than zenith, might be hundreds of miles from you - making it
less likely that a sonic boom could reach the observer in only 1 or 2 minutes' time.
However, nearer your zenith, a quite large and quite dense meteoroid COULD penetrate
very far while still keeping enough of its celestial velocity to cause a sonic boom.)

Also, I'm not sure what latitude and longitude you were at exactly - about how far
below (or above!) the horizon would you say the sun was at the time you saw this?

Finally, a more general question for the list - were there any expected (or observed)
manmade object reentries during the period when Jim and his son saw this - August
15, 8:20pm local time? If so, it would make it much more likely that Jim and his son
got to see something wonderful - a reentry trail - even if it wasn't a true meteor. :)

Clear skies all!
Lew Gramer



-----Original Message-----
From: meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org [mailto:meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org] On Behalf Of Jim Pettit
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2004 8:56 PM
To: meteorobs at meteorobs.org
Subject: (meteorobs) Meteor Trail?


I'm definitely a newbie here, so go easy, okay?

On August 15, I was in California's Mojave Desert approximately 15 miles west-northwest of Barstow. There had been some severe
thunderstorms that afternoon (the reason my sons and I were out there in the first place) which gave way to a gorgeous and
brightly-colored desert sunset. At about twenty past eight, one of my sons asked, "What's that?" while pointing up in the sky. I
looked up to see a narrow and brightly-lit trail of smoke twisting gently in the sun at a very high altitude. Perhaps a minute or so
after we began pondering it, there was a deep and rolling sonic boom. Because I had my camera out and was taking pictures of the
sunset, I was able to take a few shots of the smoke trail. I didn't get too excited, as both Edwards Air Force Base and NASA's
Dryden Flight Research Center are in the same relative vicinity, and my thought at the moment was that it was probably some military
jet, and what I was seeing was the contrail; that's why I've only seven shots which show the trail...and in the last two of those,
it's barely visible. But I called Edwards the next day, and was told that yes, there was a sonic boom observed at that time, but no,
it wasn't any of their aircraft, as they don't do high-speed, high-altitude flights in close proximity to severe weather, and
especially not on Sunday evenings. So the more I've thought about it, the more I'm convinced it was probably instead a meteor, and
if I had lifted my head up a few seconds earlier, I might have seen something very, uh, interesting.

Anyway, if this is of interest or note to anybody, and/or anyone would like to see the raw, unretouched JPG's of the trail --
whatever it was -- please let me know.





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