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(meteorobs) Re: Anomalous meteors

Many thanks to Pierre for taking the time to share his views on this 
subject. I would like to make a few comments.....

Wavering meteors.

I don't recall seeing any meteors one could call wavering. Now I have
seen countless satellites that seem to waver along their path. Perhaps 
at higher velocities my perception of this phenomena is not so keen.

Curved meteors.

Once again I have never experienced a curved meteor.

Double meteors. 

On this subject I concur with Pierre. These are rare and beautiful 
occurrences. I have probably seen less than 5 double meteors in over
30 years of observing.

Earth grazers.

I agree with Pierre that these are common. The recent thread on the 
exact time of radiant rise and zenith attraction ties in here too. It 
must be remembered that for swift meteors such as the Eta Aquarids, 
Perseids and Leonids the zenith attraction is very small and can be 
ignored for most practical purposes. To see Earth grazers I would
suggest setting up and being ready to observe by the time the radiant 
is 5 degrees below the horizon. Any good planetarium program can help 
you determine this time.

Variable velocities.

Probably every meteor varies slightly along its path. Most of the time 
this change is too small to be seen visually, especially when we are 
dealing with phenomena averaging much less than a second. Pierre may
have witnessed a meteor that began relatively close to him and as it
progressed along its path away from him the angular velocity became
noticeably slower. I have seen this on a few occasions but it is far
from being common.

Electrophonic sounds.

I too have only heard sound occur once from a meteor. Unlike Pierre's
experience of a simultaneous electrophonic "whooossh" I heard the 
resulting sonic boom from a fireball that occurred several minutes
after the fireball event.

"Skipping" meteors.

These are not all that rare and probably occur on the order of once
every 500-1000 meteors seen (at least by me).  

Nebulous meteors.

I'm certain these are real but are different than the "halos" Pierre
describes. What I see once every 10 hours or so is a large, swift, 
nebulous blob that I classify as a nebulous object. I don't know
exactly what these are but I'm not a proponent of the mini-comet 
theory.

Vivid colored meteors.

Pierre must have color acuity similar to Norman McLeod's. I rarely see
any color in meteors dimmer than first magnitude. Even at zero and first
magnitude most meteors appear white to me. Certain showers produce a 
higher percentage of colored meteors for me. Showers with high
velocities 
provide more blue and green meteors while those of low velocity provide 
more orange and yellow meteors. 

I would also like to add two more categories:

Dark Meteors.

Once every 10 hours on average I see what appears to be a dark streak 
against the night sky. I find it difficult to believe that a meteor 
could produce such a silhouette yet it seems to be too fast and straight
for an bird, bat, or bug. I'm keeping an open mind in this category!

Crossing meteors

Only twice in over 50,000 events have I actually seen two simultaneous
meteors crossing paths. This is exceedingly rare and quite a sight to 
behold! One also has to realize that two meteors from the same shower 
cannot cross paths since they travel in parallel paths. This must occur 
with meteors from different showers or one meteor can be sporadic. In my 
case it was a 1974 Perseid crossing a sporadic and a 1998 Leonid
crossing 
another sporadic meteor.

Clear Skies!

Bob Lunsford
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