(meteorobs) re:: OT query: contrail-like formations on jet wing tips--v...

YoungBob2 at aol.com YoungBob2 at aol.com
Mon Mar 7 00:04:21 EST 2005


In a message dated 3/6/2005 10:54:53 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
bmccurdy at telusplanet.net writes:

<< mment from any of the many 
 experts on the list (and you know who you are). Over the years I have seen 
-- 
 or should I say, suspected -- maybe four or five dark meteors, compared to a 
 thousand times that number of luminous ones. Each has been a shock, but the 
 last two or three times I kept my wits sufficiently to notice its path 
across 
 the sky, and in each case it was fully or partially across the Milky Way. So 
I 
 wonder if perhaps dark meteors can be seen in silhouette against the Milky 
Way 
 in a similar manner as dark nebulae? >>

Bruce:

I, too, wondered about this but have concluded, at least in my case,
that I was probably seeing "floaters" in the eye.  I tested this in
a planetarium, where I occasionally saw a dark meteor.  Couldn't
be real!  And I noticed that sometimes they seemed to have some
tint of color to them, until I turned off the red "Exit" sign!

I also have noticed a class of very dim (6 mag?), very fast 
"meteors" usually at the periphery.  Perhaps one or two in 15 
minutes.  Also, when I got up or sat down and had moved my
head, it seemed more likely to see one.  These also I noticed
in the planetarium, I had always ignored these little flashes
when observing.  This brings into question observations of dim
meteors, to me.

Clear skies,
Bob Young
State Museum of Pennsylvania Planetarium
Harrisburg 


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