(meteorobs) Fw: Disintegrating meteor photos

[Ed Majden]

on 3/7/05 11:20, astrongeo at astrongeo at yahoo.com wrote:

> 
> 
> I just joined the list to see the discussion about this case.
> 
> I'm a bit in doubt about what is seen here.
> I know this person and he has a solid astronomy background.
> So a cigarette and deliberate fake it is shurely not!
> 
> And Jack Drummond, at Starfire Optical Range, AFRL has commented on
> the image and says with 99.9% probability it's a meteor!
> How can he come to this conclusion, while you ends up with the
> opposite conclusion?
> 
> On the other hand could it be fireworks, or something similar?
> 
> Bjørn Sørheim
> 

Hello Bjorn:
    Do you still have the url as I have deleted it?  I would like to see
Jack Drummond's reason as to why he thinks this is a disintegrating meteor
photo. I'm an amateur meteor spectroscopist so don't have Jack's background
in physics.  I have however seen many video recorded meteor tracks and none
of them resemble this photo.  A meteor can have a persistent train often
caused by the forbidden line of O I at 557.7 nm in fast meteors.  This can
last over 1 second.  Other persistent trails can be caused by other things
but they would not show up as wisps of smoke behind the meteor.  Very bright
meteors sometimes leave a long duration persistent train and these are often
distorted by high altitude winds over a period of time.  Certainly not after
2 second which I think is the duration of this photograph.  The bright video
meteors I have recorded often have a tear drop appearance with the trail
behind the head.  The train can be persistent (a second or more in duration)
but certainly not wispy like the smoke in this photo. I do think this photo
was caused by something else but I have an open mind, so a better
explanation could prove me wrong. I wonder what Jiri Borovicka, Robert
Hawkes or Rob McNaught and other professional meteor scientists think of
this photo???

Ed Majden