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More Meteor Colors discussion
Several comments by various folks inspired these comments.
Describing colors is interesting and somewhat subjective. In my business we
do have a standard which I know instinctivly- it is the color bar test
pattern. If you've ever seen one on a calibrated monitor, the colors from
left to right are Yellow,Cyan,Green,Magenta,Red, and Blue. I know what
those colors are supposed to be. However, slight variation in hue would
still be called the same color. The other color parameter besides hue
(Color) is saturation;i.e. how much white is mixed with the color. Hue gets
harder to judge as more white is mixed (the color is "diluted") . I would
guess that with meteors, the color intensity is somewhat mixed with white.
I really have only seen hints of color, the price of being a newbie.
Perhaps someone with hundreds of hours of observing time could comment on
how many say green meteors have just a hint of green, and how many look
like an overfertilized freshly mowed golf putting green. Is red pinkish, or
like the light on a fire truck?
As for the retinal reverse color response, I don't know how often that
would add to the train color. It is highly site specific on your retina,
and it takes a second or two to form. I just did some experiments with
those color bars I spoke of. If you STARE at the screen for a few seconds,
then go to a gray screen, the exact complementry colors are visible: Green
becomes Magenta, Blue becomes yellow, etc. However, each bar stays in the
same spot. Also, if the bars are only on the screen for 1/2 second, the
"reverse " image does not have time to form (with my eyes). So in order for
the reverse image color to add to the persistant train color, I theorize
that it would have to be a bright intense color, it would have to be so for
at least a full second, and it would have to maintain the precise position
on your retina. Perhaps if you were staring precisely at a fireball as it
occurred, so your eyes were already centered, and it was very bright
(Fireball intensity), it might be a factor, but otherwise I suspect other
explainations are required.
Comments from those whove seen some?
Wayne Tv