(meteorobs) Very faint meteors (was Re: OT query: contrail-like formations on jet wing)

[Lew Gramer]

--- YoungBob2 at aol.com wrote:
> Subject:   Re:  re:: OT query:  contrail-like formations on jet wing
>       tips--v... ()
> 
> 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.

Many of us have experienced these "luminous floaters" while observing, Bob -
especially when just settling back into the lawnchair after a break, or when
fatigued and suddenly moving our heads during a session. I also discount any
faint meteors I catch on such occasions - one reason why I log so few meteors
at the very faint end of my magnitude distributions. (I rarely log more than
two or three meteors in my last magnitude class during even a long night: and I
almost never log a meteor which is less than about 0.5 magnitude from my LM.
After all, these are MOVING phenomena, and all LM estimates are taken with
static stars, which the eye has plenty of time to register scotopically.)

These phenomena should be carefully distinguished, however, from what I log as
"true" faint meteors - usually, meteors of no particular angular speed, that
fall in the last or next-to-last full magnitude class (and which I sometimes
have to log with a half-magnitude estimate - a quirk of my own observing
style).

I generally observe these latter meteors within 10 degrees (or very rarely 20
degrees) Distance from my Center of Vision (DCV). And I almost always have a
clear impression of not only magnitude, but path, direction, and angular speed
on these meteors as well... In other words, I definitely believe these are
true, faint meteors - just near the visibility limit of my eyes and that sky.


PS: Thanks for all the interesting threads of the past three to four months!
Unfortunately, I have been going through a career transition and other life
events, and have not had adequate time to interact in all of the fascinating
discussions which have gone on since the Geminids of last year. But I do read
them all - and it is forever wonderful to me, that our little forum has truly
become a vibrant, self-sustaining community of the world's meteor astronomers.


Clear skies!

Lew Gramer (GRALE)
owner-meteorobs at meteorobs.org
http://www.meteorobs.org



	
		
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