(meteorobs) YCS to Cloudbait

[Chris Peterson]

> The HandyAvi record clearly shows a point source getting larger with 
> very
> small irregular flaring before the first of two explosions which then
> dwindled down to a small hot object that became invisible well after 
> the
> last explosion.

The problem is, at the resolution of a video allsky camera _all_ meteors 
are point sources. The only reason they appear otherwise is because the 
diffracted image spreads out over multiple pixels. The brighter the 
image, the more pixels are covered. Measuring the diameter of a meteor 
is actually a very accurate way to determine magnitude, and the only way 
once your sensor saturates. This is the same situation with astroimages, 
where the diameter of a star's image is proportional to its brightness.

> It is unlikely that another Sentinel captured it because the standard
> settings would not have triggered on light with little lateral motion.

If this was a meteor, a camera a few kilometers away would not have seen 
a stationary object, so there should have been enough lateral motion to 
trigger a capture.

Chris

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


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <stange34 at sbcglobal.net>
To: "Global Meteor Observing Forum" <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 10:25 PM
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) YCS to Cloudbait


> Understood all you have said Chris. Thankyou.
>
> I was very careful to scrutinize the 2 different avi records of the 
> Bolide
> thinking as you have said that it could be plane etc.
>
> The HandyAvi record clearly shows a point source getting larger with 
> very
> small irregular flaring before the first of two explosions which then
> dwindled down to a small hot object that became invisible well after 
> the
> last explosion. Both records at slow speed confirm that it cannot be a
> mechanical light source.
>
> It is unlikely that another Sentinel captured it because the standard
> settings would not have triggered on light with little lateral motion. 
> On
> both systems here, I use a much higher sensitivity setting than 
> normal.
> HandyAvi triggers on very small light flares & 5 pre-frames with 11 
> post
> frames. Sentinel is set far above normal sensitivity.
>
> Larry
> YCS