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Re: (meteorobs) Anomalous meteors
Hi Pierre,
I'm pretty sure I mentioned spiraling meteors last year, but it would be
very difficult to discount vibration to the camera as the cause. The only
way to be certain of such an effect would be if the same meteor was caught
on more than one camera and the oscillations matched.
Of the several tens of meteors I've seen on UK Schmidt plates, all were
dead straight. Any variations on these were below the arcsec level.
I have seen spiraling satellites however on UK Schmidt plates! On a
couple of occasions when there were drive problems and the RA was
oscillating, satellites crossing the plates displayed this variation. The
stars all showed elongations in RA of the same amplitude. If the
oscillation is not constant for the whole exposure, the full amplitude may
only display on the brightest stars in the image. If these are too
bright, they may mask the oscillation.
Cheers, Rob
Robert H. McNaught
rmn@aaocbn.aaodot gov.au
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