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RE: (meteorobs) observations and 3 stooges



Joe,
	While meteors can appear as brief flashes (point meteors) these are 
comparatively rare, since only a specific set of circumstances causes it. 
That is when a meteoroid is heading directly toward you on the earth's 
suface. Nowadays, the most common cause of flashes in the sky is 
satellites. Satellite appearences can vary from a slow moving steady light 
from magnitude -2 down to below visibilty, the Iridium flares we know so 
well, and well as many types of flashes.
	Right now, a rocket body, referred to as SL-16 or Okean,  I believe, is 
regularly crossing the sky with a very fast flash period of about 0.65 
seconds. Other flashers have periods of up to nearly a minute, making it 
very difficult to find the second flash, since you cannot usually tell what 
direction it's moving, and it can cover a large chunk of the sky in a 
minute. The longest period I've ever detected is 45 seconds.
	Another source of bright flashes is out of control Iridiums, since these 
are not carried on the GSOC satellite page. Yesterday there was a report of 
4 flashes from Iridium 48, and I have also seen unpredicted flashes from 
other out of control Iridiums....and these can be as bright as -9.
	If you do indeed have poor eyesight, another possibilty is that a faint 
meteor briefly flared up to be bright enough to be seen. In my small 
experience, about 1% or so of meteors vary significantly in brigtness along 
it's path.
	Since most meteors are faint (about 3 times as many in each fainter 
magnitude class compared to the one above it) there are quite a few that 
fall into that "did I see it or not" zone. With some experience, you do 
increase your awareness of the fainter ones, but there will always be ones 
right at the edge when you can't be sure. If I'm not sure, they are not 
counted.
	Regarding the four 0 mag flashes you saw (that seems the most likely 
explanation), without your Latitude and Longitude we can't really speculate 
as to which sat it was. If you are using the GSOC page, try looking at the 
SL-16 path at the time you observed to see if that might have been it.
	Good Luck!

Wayne

----------
From: 	Talbert, Joe[SMTP:J.Talbert@RacalATE.com]
Sent: 	Wednesday, September 08, 1999 10:23 AM
To: 	meteorobs@jovian.com
Subject: 	(meteorobs) observations and 3 stooges

1: I also am new to meteor observing and wondering if meteors ever appear 
as
brief flashes in the sky? I often see such flashes  but because my eyesight
is poor I'm not sure if they are reflections off my eyeglass lenses or an
ocular glitch. I also tend to see a lot of stuff streaking across the sky
but tend not to trust what I think I see. It must be pretty bright before I
believe I've seen any thing! At any rate this morning I saw the following:

Location: N33 W117  Time: 12:15-12:19 UT Direction: Just under Jupiter so
about RA 02h Dec 5 deg
observed 4 bright flashes Mag 0.

I checked for Irridium flares and none were expected. The direction is
toward the eastern end of Piscies bordering Cetus.
Any feed back?

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end

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