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Re: (meteorobs) Re: Reported Fireball Magnitudes
My unskilled $0.02: I was observing near North Bend, Washington (east of Seattle) on Tuesday morning, from about 02:30 until about 04:20 PDT, clear skies, no clue as to the LM. I observed a fair number of meteors (I'm lame, I wasn't recording anything), along with 2 very bright ones which may be classified as fireballs. They were both significantly brighter than Jupiter, bright enough to illuminate the landscape slightly. Both left persistent trains, the brighter second meteor left a long train that distorted visibly in the minute or so I could see it.
-Peter Loron
=========== REPLY PARTITION ===========
On 08/13/97, at 12:14 PM, epmajden@mars.ark.com wrote:
> I am somewhat skeptical about the number and magnitude of fireballs
>being reported by some observers during the Perseid Shower. My own
>observations don't support this, so I'm puzzled as to why I'm not recording
>these very bright fireballs! I have looked at the MORP Camera Network
>statistics published by Halliday et all in the Journal, "METEORITICS - Vol
>31, No.2 March 1996). There are indeed greater numbers of -3 magnitude and
>brighter meteors reported during the Perseid shower dates. These were
>recorded by a 12 Station - 60 Camera system when it was in operation over an
>eleven year period. For a single Station, the number of -3 magnitude or
>brighter fireballs reported don't seem to support the numbers reported by
>some observers. I do meteor spectroscopy from my observatory on mid
>Vancouver Island and will record spectra of meteors brighter than -2
>magnitude and my own data does not support this either. I would like to
>see some of these observers set up an all-sky or fisheye camera during
>their observing sessions to try and confirm their observations. In
>Europe,observers might be able to check the data from the European Fireball
>Camera Network. I would be very happy if the rates of very bright fireballs
>where as high as reported. I have also looked back at some results reported
>in Meteor News, by Millman and meteors brighter than -3 magnitude are quite
>rare during past visual observations. Maybe I should move to your location
>to improve my spectra numbers!
>
>Ed
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>Edward Majden epmajden@mars.ark.com
>1491 Burgess Road Meteor Spectroscopy
>Courtenay, B.C. http://www.serve.com/meteors/majden.html
>CANADA V9N-5R8 Amateur Astronomy
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