[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re: (meteorobs) Fireball mags...
A point meteor of magnitude -15 would not only have illuminated the
ground, but also the surrounding sky (just like the moon). Heck, even a
-5 will cause this effect immediately upon appearance in a relatively dark
sky. Even if it only lasted for 0.1 second, you can be sure that other
people would have seen it. The last three very bright fireballs I saw
were all noticed by other observers, with a spread of up to 120 miles, and
these were in the -6 to -8 range.
A -15 point meteor would not be "boring" in the least. If you weren't
looking directly at it, you would see everything illuminated as if by a
lightning flash; if you were looking at it you would be temporarily
night-blinded.
I've only seen two or three genuinely stationary meteors, none of them
brighter than +1.
Speaking of lightning flashes, maybe these could be used to train oneself
for making fireball estimates. There was a serious thunderstorm 25 miles
away from the Oregon Star Party, with periodic blinding flashes intruding
into an otherwise 7th-magnitude sky. If I had wished to subject myself to
these and faced the "radiant" rather than turning away, maybe I could have
gotten some practice in for estimating the "big one".
--
Wes Stone <wstone@lclarkdot edu> Lewis and Clark College, Portland, OR
SKYTOUR Amateur Astronomy Hypertext:
http://www.lclarkdot edu/~wstone/skytour/skytour.html
References: