(meteorobs) Meteor Trail?

[Jim Pettit]

Lewis/All--

A number of people have asked to look at the photos; rather than send them
out to each and every person, I've posted them to a web page:
http://www.ojaiayso.org/_skytrail/.

--The trail (or, you know, whatever it was) was approximately 45 to 50
degrees altitude above the horizon. I should repeat this point: I did not
see whatever it was that produced the trail. I didn't see the trail until my
son pointed it out to me, and that could have been any amount of time after
it was made (though from the way it was warping in the winds, I'd say it
couldn't have been there more than a minute before I saw it).

--I didn't have a GPS with me, but my best guess looking at a map is I was
somewhere around 117.35W/34.92N. The sun was just a few degrees above the
horizon; I was taking sunset photos, remember? ;-)

--I'm new to meteorobs (and what a fine list it is!), but I'm not new to
(very) amateur skywatching; I realize that high-altitude jets can fly
through areas of greater and lesser humidity, and that can make a contrail
visible in some areas, and not visible in others. So, I searched the sky for
other 'pieces' of a contrail, and was able to see none. As I said, I know
it's possible that a contrail could be visible in one place and not in
another, but this definitely had no other components that I could see.

--I also know that contrails can twist and warp in the wind. But from the
pictures, you can see how the lower/westernmost end of the trail gets
quickly pushed off to the south (toward the left side of the photos). The
anvil of the thunderstorm was being pushed gently toward the west at the top
of the troposphere, while, by contrast, the trail appears that it was being
violently sheared by winds at different altitudes, and in a wholly different
direction than the anvil.

Anyway, thanks, everybody, for commenting on whatever it was I saw and
photographed. I sincerely apologize for not taking more pictures, and better
ones. At the time I really did think it was a jet, so I didn't focus in on
it (except in the single zoomed-in photo). I was just hanging out in the
desert with my two sons, enjoing the dissipating storms and the beautiful
sunset, and trying to snap a few cheesy shots of it before it disappeared.
So, whether it was a meteor trail, the death spiral of some obsolete piece
of dis-orbiting space junk, or even some high-flying and otherwise mundane
jet, it was something cool to hear and see. I'm glad I was a witness.

--Jim 

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org
[mailto:meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org] On Behalf Of Lewis J. Gramer
Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 9:55 AM
To: 'Global Meteor Observing Forum'
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Meteor Trail?

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

---TRIMMED--