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Re: (meteorobs) Should I fill in Fireball report
On Thu, 22 Oct 1998, Kim Hay wrote:
Lew> You bet, Kim - if you judge any meteor to be *brighter than Jupiter*
Lew> (which is mag -2.8 right now), then you should report it as a fireball.
>
> I was under the impression, that a fireball had to be -4 or greater.
I was brought up with the IAU definition from 1970's (might have been
the Brighton meeting), where they defined some meteor terms. One of
these was a fireball being -4 or brighter.
It's somewhat academic. The important thing is to be consistent when
forming a database for statistical analyses, and the IMO criterion is
-3 zenithal magnitude. This allows for the dimming of meteors seen
low down and hence are more distant. So a -1 close to the horizon,
might still be a fireball. If you follow Lew's suggestion you won't
go far wrong vis a vis whether to make a fireball report.
Malcolm
tele@imodot net
> Because it exploded, I knew that part should be reported, but the
> first magnification, did not seem as bright as it needed to be.
>
> Thanks for the sites Lew.
>
> Clear skies to you, because we have none here.
>
> Kim
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