(meteorobs) Long path meteor -spiraling- *Magnified*

[Jim Wooddell]

Hi all!

There seems to be three basic shapes to meteorites that suggest what their 
flight characteristics were within our atmosphere prior to them smacking the 
ground.
1.  Spherical - where random tumbling occurred.
2.  Cone - where the rotation axis was along the direction of motion.
3.  Shield - where the flight was stable, no tumbling, no rotation.

I have recovered meteorites of all three shapes and without counting I would 
say my finds indicate mostly meteorites that were shields, then spherical, 
then cone, in order of quantity recovered.

Based on this, I do think it is reasonable to think that meteoroids can and 
do tumble.  Is there some reference somewhere that suggests they don't?


Happy Holidays!

Jim


Jim Wooddell
https://k7wfr.us



----- Original Message ----- 
From: <eric at meteoritesusa.com>
To: <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Monday, December 05, 2011 11:30 AM
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Long path meteor -spiraling- *Magnified*


> Just curious...
>
> Almost all of the videos/movies claiming spiraling meteoroids have
> been "explained away" as either equipment malfunction (shaking) and/or
> software issues, and even operator error.
>
> Is there some bias against spiraling meteoroids or something? Why it's
> so hard for people to believe that spiraling/tumbling meteoroids happen?
>
> Regards,
> Eric
>
>
>
> Quoting Thomas Ashcraft <ashcraft at heliotown.com>:
>
>> Follow-up to the post regarding possible rotation visible of the meteor
>> when magnified:
>>
>> It was suggested off-list that the apparent rotation was due to
>> interlacing and software processing artifacts.  As a test, I processed
>> and magnified a video of a similar meteor from my archives and I now
>> think the "rotation" is indeed a product of the software processing as
>> it also shows rotation.  Here is a quick test movie and I did not add
>> text or labels:
>> http://www.heliotown.com/Meteorrotationtest_Ashcraft.mp4
>>
>> Thomas in New Mexico
>>
>>
>> On 12/1/11 7:41 PM, Thomas Ashcraft wrote:
>>>> UPDATE:
>>>>
>>>> On 12/1/11 8:23 AM, Thomas Ashcraft wrote:
>>>>> Dec 01, 2011  2:35:54 am MST.
>>>>>
>>>>> There was a very long path meteor over north-central New Mexico last
>>>>> night.  Visible flight time lasted ~ 13 seconds.
>>>>>
>>>>> All-sky camera view with stereo forward scatter:   Movie.  1 MB  .mp4
>>>>> format.
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.heliotown.com/FBs20111201_093554ut_Ashcraft.mp4
>>>>>
>>>> Update to previous post:
>>>>
>>>> For further analysis I magnified this meteor in Final Cut Express 
>>>> (movie
>>>> making software for Macs) and slowed it down and it is interesting to
>>>> see this particular meteor clearly spiraling.
>>>>
>>>> Here is a longer movie that includes the magnification.  4 MB  .mp4 
>>>> format
>>>> http://www.heliotown.com/FBmagDec012011_093554ut_Ashcraft.mp4
>>>>
>>>> Thomas Ashcraft near Santa Fe
>>> Further update:
>>>
>>> Someone suggested that the apparent spiraling of the meteor may be
>>> interlacing artifacts and could also be frame grabber artifacts.
>>>
>>> Any further analysis is welcome. Thank you.
>>>
>>> Thomas in New Mexico
>>>
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