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Re: (meteorobs) Possible alert : Taurids



-----Original Message-----
>Many of the meteors were brighter than Jupitor and
>travelled for 4-6 seconds and it is the brightness as I understand it that
>classifies them  a fireball.  Please correct me if I am mistaken.


Joy,

You are correct...the brightness, what we call the magnitude does classify a
fireball. A meteor of magnitude -3.0 or brighter is normally considered a
fireball and is archived by both AMS and FIDAC (Fireball Data Center). A
rough guide to how bright this is would be the planet Venus, which would be
a little brighter at -4.0 or so.

Hope this helps!

Mark Davis, MeteorObs@charlestondot net
Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, USA
=======================================================
NAMN:   http://medicine.wustldot edu/~kronkg/namn.html
AMS:    http://www.serve.com/meteors
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