(meteorobs) Nice variety of Fireballs occured.

[Chris Peterson]

> The cut off limit for a meteorite dropping fireball is around -6.0 or 
> brighter.  One has to be careful here as high velocity Cometary 
> fireballs do not drop meteorites as these burn up in the atmosphere.

What does that mean? Clearly, fireballs that are brighter than -6 
(either apparent or absolute) do drop meteorites sometimes. As do 
meteors that don't even reach fireball status.

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ed Majden" <epmajden at shaw.ca>
To: "Global Meteor Observing Forum" <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Saturday, October 06, 2007 5:00 PM
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Nice variety of Fireballs occured.


> Wayne:
> When I first started observing meteors back in the early 1950's it was 
> generally accepted that any meteor brighter than -2.0 magnitude was 
> considered a fireball.  Today, the generally accepted brightness is 
> any meteor brighter than the planet Venus or -4.7 magnitude or rounded 
> off -5.0 magnitude.  The RASC Observers Handbook, Fireball Section, 
> uses -5.0 or brighter.  Dr. Martin Beech, in his book Meteors and 
> Meteorites uses the -4.7 mag number.  The cut off limit for a 
> meteorite dropping fireball is around -6.0 or brighter.  One has to be 
> careful here as high velocity Cometary fireballs do not drop 
> meteorites as these burn up in the atmosphere.
> Ed