[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
(meteorobs) Re: Somewhat unusual (?) telescopic obs.
Thank you very much to Bob Lunsford and Dave English for the reply
messages. Bob Lunsford wrote regarding the telescopic objects that
my friend and I saw:
> How long did it take these objects to cross the field of view in the
> eyepiece?
These were zingers, crossing the field in just a fraction of a second.
The friend I was observing with routinely brings predictions for faint
satellites, some as faint as +10, and on a reasonably good night he
easily acquires almost all of those that he actually looks for -- as
long as they're moving. (If they're not flashing/tumbling, those in
eccentric orbits, near apogee and standing nearly still -- not to
mention "geosynchs" -- aren't easy to distinguish from stars!)
> Telescopic satellites are much more common
> with a rate of about one per hour for me. To see two or three of these
> objects at this time of the night would indicate to me you saw faint
> satellites.
I'd be in full agreement except that we were there looking for
satellites, and my friend had predictions for the great majority of
them that would be visible that evening from our location using that
telescope. (Since I use binoculars or one-power when not looking at
something in his 'scope, I don't take nearly as many predictions as
he does.) I'll have to make notes of such things, so as to at least
know how many we saw. By the way, in almost all cases when we see a
satellite for which we don't have predictions, if we get good enough
time and position data we can identify it later (such as the flashing
one that annoyed Norman McLeod in mid-January).
So anyway I'm pretty sure that what we saw were meteors.
Dave English wrote regarding the flash we saw:
> You and your friend may
> have seen a Sprite, they are observed from 20-+300 miles away.
That was a neat article! I had heard of those but this was the best
article that I've seen by far. However, in this case I don't think
it's a match. What we saw was peripherally, and from that article
it sounds like one has to really make an effort to see sprites.
Also, we were only about 10 miles (16 km) from downtown Austin, so
even on such a beautifully clear and moonless night our one-power
limiting magnitude probably wasn't very good. (My friend tells me
that site was a LOT better 30 years ago! But I guess that's, sadly,
a too familiar story.) On the other hand, I heard from someone in
San Marcos, probably about 25 miles (40 km) from our site, that there
was a small thunderstorm near that town -- that didn't even show up
on the weather radar! So it may indeed have been a flash of
lightning from the north side of that little storm. Or like Bob
said, maybe it was "a short-lived fireball which usually occur when
everyone is looking down :) ".
Clear (and dark!) skies --
Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexasdot edu - Austin, Texas, USA
To UNSUBSCRIBE from the 'meteorobs' email list, use the Web form at:
http://www.tiacdot net/users/lewkaren/meteorobs/subscribe.html
Follow-Ups: