(meteorobs) a couple of quick questions

[Terry Richardson]

Arlene et al,

All of us had to start somewhere with our meteor observing. I knew a 
lot of technical and theoretical astronomy when I joined this group but 
almost nothing about meteors. Picked most of it up from the experts 
like Geo Zay, Robert Lunsford, and  Mark Davis. The meteorbs list serve 
is one of the best around.

Indeed if you say a Perseids at the early hour it would have likely 
been a long trail with the radiant very low at that time. And double 
meteors mean two particles in parallel orbits so they enter the Earth's 
atmosphere at the same time. I saw a terrific triple meteor during the 
Perseids of 1980. Now this meteor may or may not have been a Persied 
depending on whether its path traced back to the radiant.

Clear skies,

Terry Richardson
Department of Physics and Astronomy
College of Charleston

On Aug 2, 2005, at 11:19 PM, Arlene Carol wrote:

> i'm apologizing again to the group...i still am not any better at this
> meteor watching business.
> unless someone comes here and teaches me some things i need to learn, 
> i'm
> not going
> to be able to sound anything like you all do. (you all impress and
> intimidate me but i still
> need to report what i saw and ask questions).
>  for the first time in ages, i went outside to check out the skies last
> night. it's been hot
> during the day and i've had to run around at lower elevations which 
> hasn't
> been fun..anyway...
>  went out at 11pm last night. within the first 10 minutes, i saw what i
> think was a Perseid...
> a nice long, relatively bright meteor...but...i'm still wondering if 
> what i
> saw was 'for real'
> or was it a trick my eyes played on me...
>  it looked to be a 'parallel' streak...two meteors moving right next 
> to each
> other...the more
> i thought about it, the more i said 'why not?'... but i'm asking you if
> you've ever seen
> this yourselves? (it was traveling from east/northeast to
> west/southwest...possible Perseid?)
>  that was the only 'substantial' meteor i saw ... in just that short 
> period
> of time, there were
> 4 other sporadics but much 'shorter' in length than that 'double' 
> meteor i
> saw.
>  i'll try again all the coming nights till past the peak...we've had 
> some
> strange weather this
> year...our normally crystalline skies are slightly hazy...and the 
> temps are
> NOT what we're
> used to here...it seems that our weather is changing...and i think we 
> aren't
> alone in that
> observation...what are we doing to the planet?
>  okay...good observing, clear skies and cool nights.
>  arlene
> south of troy, along the northern aegean
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