Thanks for the reply. GSOC doesn't show SL-16 activity at the indicated time. Well it's reassuring that I'm not just "seeing things".
By the way my location was indicated as Location: N33 W117 Time: 12:15-12:19 UT This is southwest Riverside County in So. California.
-----Original Message-----
From: meteors@eclipsedot net [SMTP:meteors@eclipsedot net]
Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 1999 10:18 AM
To: 'meteorobs@jovian.com'
Subject: 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