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(meteorobs) GREEN Leonid Fireballs?
Observed off and on (went in to warm up a bit) from 3AM to 5AM on the
Eastern Shore of Maryland last night. Was very clear at the beginning,
then finally hazed over about 5AM.
Saw only 10-15 meteors total, but of these, 3 were VERY bright fireballs,
brightest meteors I've ever seen (I'm not really a "regular" just have watch
the Perseids every few years, etc. in my life.)
One about 3:15AM, another 15 minutes later, and another about 4:45AM. All
pretty obviously traced back to the Leonid radiant.
I'm not really too experienced in magnitude estimation, but all three were
very obviously brighter than Venus (the more or less "official" fireball
criteria, correct?) The final one I saw through a layer of high clouds that
had obscured all but the VERY brightest stars of Orion......
Trains lasted about 30 seconds on these...
Of all the meteors in toto, they seemed to be in discrete "bursts"...could
go 20-30 minutes without any, then a bunch, then another lull.
But.....the fireballs were GREEN..and as they trains faded they got even
greener.....
Am I nuts? Is this a usual color? All the Perseids I've seen looked pretty
colorless. Is this caused by the composition of the Leonid dust, or some
sort of atmospheric pollution?
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