(meteorobs) Question on an interesting meteor -Enhanced Picture

[Chris Peterson]

Hi Ed-

Just a couple of points. This was an Orionid, not a Leonid. Still fast, but 
66 km/s rather than 72 km/s. Second, the image was not made on film, but on 
a good quality digital camera. While far less sensitive than an intensified 
camera, it is nevertheless catching more in a 2-minute exposure than the eye 
(and far more than film could capture in that same interval).

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: Wednesday, September 09, 2009 9:42 AM
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Question on an interesting meteor -Enhanced Picture


> Pat:
> I believe the comments left by Chris Peterson and Dr. Jiri Borovicka
> are the correct ones.  A still image such as this one can be rather
> misleading.  It would have been better if this image was obtained by
> an image intensified video system.  You are only looking at the
> brightest parts of the train as film is not sensitive enough to
> capture the complete and fainter parts of the train.  You must
> remember that a Leonid meteoroid is entering at 72 km/sec so the
> change in altitude is considerable along the path.  It is too bad we
> do not know the actual duration of this meteor.  As Jiri pointed out,
> the trail is being distorted over 10s of seconds with winds changing
> direction at different altitudes.  You can't really see this in a
> still image.  Perhaps Peter Jennisken's NASA airborne mission team
> has video images taken during their airborne missions that would show
> what is taking place much better.
> Ed Majden
> Courtenay, B.C. Canada.