(meteorobs) Strange Lightcurves

[meteors at eclipse.net]

Mark,
    Those are fascinating images. I will be replaying them many times
while I imagine mechanisms to produce such a view.

The fact is, it is very hard to imagine a physical mechanism to support
the "skipping off the atmosphere" idea. They were not earthgrazers, or
would have been much longer. That's the only circumstances that should
allow the "skipping off the atmosphere" effect to take place.

This is just a first conjecture here, but the only scenario that makes
sense for the first is two meteors along the same path, one after another.
The brightness curve just can't be from one meteor (with my understanding
of the physics involved, I most cetainly could be wrong). There are stars
visible in the path, so there's no hint of any cloud.

The second is a little less clear (pun intended :>) There seem to be a lck
of visible stars along the meteor path, and the brightness difference is
not as great; could be the meteor passed a contrail or some other narrow
cloud? Or it could be two meteors along the same path. Again, it's very
hard to explain physics (IMHO) that would allow one object to do that.
If anyone has ideas that could make it work, tell me.
I haven't timed them yet, but I recall they seem to be less than 2 seconds
which suggests a fairly steep path into the atmosphere.


Can I ask these questions? First, would these be from the same shower?
With one possibility being two meteors on the exact same path, can you
give a guess as to the radiant? If they both come from the same shower, it
seems like a fascinating suggestion that there might be something unique
about this shower.

Second, related to my first guess on the second one, where were these
taken? Do you have low enough light pollution that a cloud would appear as
a hole in the sky (typical of really dark sites) or is it more like here,
where coulds are bright bands across the background dark sky?

Finally, can you make any magnitude estimated with the experience on your
system? Might help the interpretation.

Thanx very much for posting those images. I assure you, I will be viewing
and thinking about them for a long time!!

Wayne




> Hi,
> I noticed that some meteors become nearly invisible for a moment and
> then reappear again. Here are two examples, taken with an xx1332 image
> intensifierer and 120mm lens (crops from original 720x576 pixel video,
> 1/25s per frame):
> http://www.parhelia.de/storm/2007/meteor_20070910_013826.gif
> http://www.parhelia.de/storm/2007/meteor_20070912_022427.gif
>
> I'm looking for an explanation of this phenomenon. Any ideas?
>
> Mark
>
>
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