(meteorobs) meteor colors

[Ed Majden]

    I realy think that the color of meteors is more of an issue with the way one perseives colors.  This seems to vary between individual observers.  As for "Red" meteors there are very few spectral lines at the red end of a meteor spectrum. N 2+ (nitrogen) and Si+ (silicon) is sometimes present but I don't know if these features would be strong enough to give a meteor a red color.  Perhaps a meteor seen near the horizon through pollution could appear redish to some.
Ed Majden - AMS Meteor Spectroscopy
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Paul Jones 
  To: Meteor science and meteor observing 
  Sent: Monday, June 06, 2011 6:36 AM
  Subject: Re: (meteorobs) meteor colors


  Paul,
        I certainly concur on all your points, too.  My wife has a car whose color also vascillates between blue and green in the spectrum depending upon the observer!  I've heard it described as anything from aquamarine to turquoise to emerald to blue-green to green-blue.  And that's all in broad daylight...;o)!
       I forgot to mention another meteor shower that has historically presented some vivid and striking color meteors to me (although never green) down through the years and that is the alpha Capricornids in late July.  I see gorgeous yellows, oranges bronzes and golds in these meteors and almost everyone I see has color to it.  Can't wait to see them this year in a new Moon.
      I get the feeling that another factor that may come into play in all this is observer experience.  Seems like the longer someone meteor watches, the less likely they are to see green in meteors.  Figuring that on the average more fireball reports come from less experienced folks than from veteran observers, green color reporting might fall away quite a bit statistically if more experienced folks were reporting them, perhaps.
      The only bluish tint I see in meteors comes from an occasional Geminid or Perseid.   I also rarely, if ever see red tinting in a meteor.  Interesting topic.

  Clear skies all, Paul in north Florida

  On Fri, Jun 3, 2011 at 9:06 PM, <pmartsching at mchsi.com> wrote:

    I think no two people perceive color exactly the same.  We grow up being told various objects, etc. are certain colors and we learn that, even tho each person may not be seeing exactly the same tones, hues, etc.  My parents once owned a car that to my eyes was "dark blue" or at the very greenest "very slightly greenish dark blue"; but my mother and my sister insisted that the car was "green".

    Some of this is also noticed when observing double stars - even when they are far enough apart that one star can be gotten out of the telescope's field of view - so as to not have the contrast effect "messing up" the color determination.  If there are only three or four people this can be an interesting project observing double stars and each person writing down the colors they see without comment and then after all have viewed a particular pair comparing the results; also later comparing the results with published sources.

    I have observed around 40,000 meteors.  Of these fewer than 5 were truly green.  The brightest was a mag. -3 Geminid.  Fairly bright shower fireballs often start out yellow or orange, but at peak brightness are usually white.  I have seen quite a few fireballs in the mag -4 to mag -8 range that I would describe as very pale blue, blue-white, or pale greenish blue (these often starting out yellow or orange). I once observed the Perseids with a person who said most of the bright Perseids were green.  To me the same meteors were either white or pale yellow.

    One of the most beautiful meteors I ever saw was a South Taurid in late September which was a scintillating ball of blue-white sparkles (like the "flare" from a very bright object, such as a welder's torch) nearly as big as the Moon with an orange wake several degrees long - magnitude probably -12 ?)

    As for red meteors - I have seen only 5 or 6 that I would call truly red - but a fair number of red-orange or deep orange meteors.  (We must remember that many persons call Arcturus and Aldeberan red stars - tho they are actually more orange.)  The brightest and slowest sporadics I have seen were all yellow or orange or deep orange thruout their paths (mag -8 to mag -12).

    I have not seen many truly blue meteors.

    Paul Martsching
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