[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re:more meteor colors
More discussion on meteor and train colors. I don't see very many colored
trains, and they are usually the same color as the meteor. The majority are
blue or blue-green; a few are intense orange. I've never had a color
inverse occur. Come to think of it, I have yet to tally up my train colors.
I always note whether a color occurs in anything, even in sparks or fragments.
For a couple of years some time back I used the following system to describe
color intensity: 1-subtle, like star color; 2-moderate, stronger than star
color; 3-intense, like airplane lights or other artificial lights. If more
than one color is seen at once, rate each one separately. In any event,
list them in order of predominance, e.g. white-blue is not the same as
blue-white. I didn't do a final workup on the intensity data, but
guesstimating it gives 30% subtle, 30% moderate, 40% intense.
When I was a beginner I saw colors right away. This may not be good news
for current beginners that don't see much color, or none at all. I would
bet half of all people don't see any color in stars or meteors. That amazes
me considering the strength of a lot of the colors I get. May be I have
excellent color perception at low light levels, as well as for just
perceiving faint objects at all. There has been an occasional observer that
reports all meteors seen as colored, even 4m and 5m! I have a tough time
accepting that.
The very first meteor I ever saw was a pure white -4m on 1960 June 5 in
mid-evening. It looked like Venus falling out of the sky. Thinking about
it today, it was likely a Scorpiid of some type. I had just turned 14.
Considering that my interest in astronomy began 5 years earlier, I am
puzzled that it took so long to see my first meteor even casually. I did
not try to see any major showers back then. Skies over Miami were dark back
in the fifties. I recall seeing only one other white meteor that bright,
and never one brighter. Why don't I see white?
When half my present age I saw a number of blue-pink meteors, especially
from the Perseids. Later on they became blue-purple only. I have seen
every unary color except red in meteors. Why are there no pure red ones?
The best I have done is the binary red-orange, where the distribution is 2/3
red and 1/3 orange. Antares is half red and half orange. There was one
fireball that let loose a shower of dozens of orange fragments but had a
single pure red fragment in the midst. That was the only time I have seen a
pure red object, and it rated an intensity of 3.
A few really exotic colors have been two brown meteors and one amber meteor,
the latter seen casually early one evening. The most common exotic is aqua,
seen in many fireballs, similar to swimming-pool paint. Geminids seem to
have most of the unusual colors, beyond what I would expect from the large
number of bright ones seen in a short time. Only the Geminids consistently
produce several nice green ones in one night for me. Yellow is my dominant
color, and blue and orange semi-dominant. Those 3 cover about 90% of my
colored meteors. The rest are binary, ternary, and exotics. The most
common binary is blue-green. I have the same basic color pattern in all the
major showers. Calling the Quadrantids or Leonids blue, or Alpha Caps
yellow, or Geminids yellow, etc., doesn't hold up with me.
Other observers will have other color patterns sharply at variance with the
above. Felix Martinez has green as common to him as orange is to me. Mark
Adams has blue as his dominant instead of yellow. Most meteors we saw
jointly that I called yellow, Mark called blue. I recall someone else in my
early days that called all of my orange meteors yellow. So I think we can
forget about drawing any conclusions on composition from visual colors!
On fainter meteors having color, I will have to tally up my +3m's separately
some time. Just from memory I think orange gets into strong dominance at
this level. Almost all colored meteors fainter than that are intense orange.
If we see all colors in meteors, then why not black ones as well?!? I
remember seeing one vividly with my first observer partner, and it was good
for a laugh, but it sure seemed real! The majority of my black meteors are
magnitudes 0, 1, or 2. Really?? I even get a strong impression of
magnitudes. Must be the apparent "size" of the object as compared to the
spikey diameters of bright stars. I haven't seen any black fireballs, and I
haven't seen a black meteor leave a train. Their speeds rarely exceed the
Geminids, and none are swift. The moving body is visible as a point, making
the magnitude impression easy. One is aware that a swiftly moving point is
only visible as a streak. A large minority of my observing sessions have at
least one black meteor; I don't recall seeing more than 3 in one night. I
have no written records of them; perhaps I should start? Major showers
don't seem to produce any. They aren't fatigue-related either; I see them
even when fully rested. The in-vogue term today is "dark meteor" for this
type of object. So here is my first-ever contribution to this topic. I
certainly have no idea what they are.
Finally, I have had a couple of subscribes and unsubscribes show up here as
messages.
More later. Norman
>