(meteorobs) RE: Explosion Observed

[GeoZay at aol.com]

>>How exactly can a human eye tell, If the source
was really  stationary. All those question remain open to me and are of
particular  intersted to me, because I have seen about 3 events in my life I
would  clasify as a stationary meteor, but never well enough to tell more
about  it.<<
I once seen a photograph of the 1966 Leonid meteor shower (I believe it was  
in Sky and Telescope), that had at least two point like meteors  in the image 
(they were located in the radiant) along with many non stationary  meteor 
streaks. I don't remember when it was, but I once saw what I thought was  a 
stationary meteor and also photographed it. I believe it was a July Pegasid  
(JPE)...almost dead on with the expected radiant. Visually it appeared to  be a point 
of light, but on the print it still displayed a very, very short  path. When 
I made the photograph, the camera was being guided automatically to  the 
stars. The star images were pin point while the "stationary" meteor  couldn't 
haven't been no longer than an 1/8 or 1/10th degree. Anyways,  however short it 
was, visually it appeared point like. It's sudden  appearance lasted much shorter 
than what I'm accustomed to for  Iridiums and feel very confident that this 
was not one of those.  I no  longer have this photo, since I have long gotten 
rid of my meteor photographs.  But I'm pretty sure I sent a copy to IMO at the 
time. This was probably  around 1993, 94, 95 or 96. I'm pretty sure I've also 
seen a couple more point  like meteors during my observing days, but don't 
remember when. There were no  photographs to back any of these up though. 
Overall, point meteors  are about as rare as hen's teeth. 
George Zay