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Re: (meteorobs) Green meteors

Great question George! Green meteors are quite rare indeed (at least for
me). I would estimate that only one out of 1000 meteors appear
distinctly green to me. Most of these green meteors are in the brighter
magnitudes of zero and brighter. Another interesting fact is that a
majority of my green sightings occur within 30 degrees of the horizon
meaning that I am looking through a thicker blanket of air when seeing
them at this lower altitude.

There are several observers that I know of who see a higher portion of 
green meteors. When I observed with Felix Martinez green was his
dominate color (excluding white). George Zay was another who saw many
green meteors. Now I would say that my color perception of meteors is
fairly typical which means that most meteors need to be at least second 
magnitude before color can be perceived. Both of the observers mentioned 
above are experienced and well respected observers. It may just be that 
they are more sensitive to this color. There was one bright Perseid that 
George called green that sticks in my mind. It was early in the evening 
and was the first bright meteor of the session. Myself and another
observer saw it as orange. Now for anyone knows the answer why we saw
the perceived color difference then you are smarter than me :)

I believe that I have heard (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that
the green color is produced by the doubly ionized oxygen produced when
larger particles encounter the atmosphere.

Bob Lunsford



"George W. Kelley, Jr." wrote:
> 
> Each year in late winter when Orion and Cetus drift across the southern and
> southwestern sky, I am reminded of the highly impressionable days of my
> youth: One evening I watched a bright, greenish-white meteor lazily emerge
> from the retreating twilight, to cross Cetus and Eridanus, then fade in
> Orion.  Not long before that I had read about the rarity of green meteors.
>   I do not recall the source of that information, nor do I recall ever
> seeing another green one.
> 
> Two decades later another reference to green meteors came to my attention,
> in the work >The Immense Journey< (Vintage Books, NY, 1959) by
> anthropologist and wordsmith Loren Eiseley:
> 
> "Lights come and go in the night sky.   Men, troubled at last by the things
> they build, may toss in their sleep and dream bad dreams, or lie awake
> while the meteors whisper greenly overhead."
> 
> The lingering questions are, how rare are green meteors, and is their color
> the result of their composition?   Have you seen one or more?
> 
> George Kelley
>
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