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Re: (meteorobs) Fireball Magnitudes
> As someone stated here a while back, many inexperianced observers will
> overestimate the brightness of a fireball. This is understandable, but
> it really isn't easy to estimate
...and many experienced observers grossly underestimate, especially
when there is a terminal flare.
BTW my understanding of bolide was an exploding fireball. My Newnes
dictionary says "a large, briliant meteor, esp. one that explodes; a
fireball." Chambers is almost the same. Substitute "bursts" for
"explodes". However, non-technical dictionaries are unreliable on
scientific matters, e.g. defining precision as accuracy. In addition
the meaning of words change, so if like Humpty-Dumpty, we choose
bolide to mean an exploding meteor, then that's what a bolide is.
Malcolm
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