(meteorobs) 42 second plus long "Earth-skimmer" - a little more info

[Ed Cannon]

I'm a layman but anyway did make an unsuccessful attempt to come up
with a candidate using satellite orbital elements.  One problem could
be that there are many many thousands of artificial objects in orbit
that are smaller than ten centimeters, for which no orbital data are
published -- if the data exist at all.  How large (and dense) does an
artificial object have to be to make a decent fireball that would last 
40 seconds?  (I wonder how many of these very small artificial objects 
re-enter over what period of time....)

By the way, Thomas, what was the magnitude of the fireball?  Also, was
it varying in brightness along its track?  It seemed like it to me,
but I don't have the best system for viewing a video like that.

Maybe you got a very unusual meteor.  Did anyone else record or see it?

Ed Cannon -- Austin, Texas


----- Original Message -----
From: Thomas Ashcraft <ashcraft at heliotown.com>
To: Global Meteor Observing Forum <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Cc: 
Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2012 2:20 PM
Subject: (meteorobs) 42 second plus long "Earth-skimmer" - a little more info

I still have not been able to come up with a suitable stacked image of 
the full flight path for my Jan 21, 2012 "Earth-skimmer" capture.  I 
have a partial flight path image that I merged with a sky-map now posted 
here:

http://www.heliotown.com/Jan21_2012_Fireball.html

Thomas Ashcraft  -  New Mexico