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(meteorobs) back to hypothetical meteor
I've been playing a little with Jim's example of a
2nd mag. meteor burn.
Entry burn begins at about 104 km alt and ends at
85 km. If I may shift the path for the second observer to pass thru his zenith,
then we are looking at a difference (line of sight) of about 30 km between the
two observers (Obs. A 125 km - Obs. B 95 km). Applying the inverse square law
for light sources, for Observer A the meteor is only 57% as bright as seen by
Obs. B. The equivalent mag reduction is .6 mag. Also atmospheric
extinction effects are reduced (to zero I presume for Obs. B) and the net result
is in the ballpark of a full magnitude. This is merely a point of interest
unless some photographers (Obs. A & B) are trying to do some triangulation
work to get exact paths.
The basic execution of the triangulation method to
which I had been introduced did not worry about this variable. If any of you
have been involved in this type of work I would be interested to hear your
thoughts on this aspect and your experiences at capturing this type of
data.
Tom