[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Re: (meteorobs) Re: meteor notes NM



At 02:39 PM 9/3/97 EDT, you wrote:
>>Long ones can sputter along, give small bursts in brightness, or
>>go out completely and reignite.
>
>Norman wrote the above, and it brought to mind one of my Perseids.

Just a quick note: I myself have seen at least 3 or 4 of these
"dashed-line" meteors (i.e., two or more bright segments of the trail,
separated by apparent darkness). I suspect that they're actually fairly
common, which only compounds Wayne's concern about how to explain them
physically! One thing I've noticed is that all of mine were fairly fast
(3.5 or better on the NAMN scale). Could they possibly be caused by a
meteor traversing different layers of the upper atmosphere, each with a
different density and/or composition?

Lew