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(meteorobs) Re: worm meteors
I may have observed 2 similar meteors before, however not from the Geminids.
They were Perseids. The first one was observed during the 1992
Perseid peak. Directly in the center of my field, I spotted a bright
"golden-yellow train" move in Cygnus and become gradually more
elongated, with the starting point still visible when it
extinguished. It did not have any hint of "condensation" or head. It
was fairly bright at magn.+2. I found it rather different and
somewhat unusual from all other Perseids I was seeing.
The second was seen last August 1999, 3 nights prior to the peak. It
was a short but bright "wake" in Cepheus, with the same
characteristics and brightness. Again, there was no brightening where
the "head" of the meteor should have been. It had a bluish color this
time.
A bright meteor without any "head", and showing only a path of
ionization really does look like a worm!
Pierre
>At 12:21 PM 12/18/99 +0100, you wrote:
> >
> >> I saw an unusual Geminid this morning. It appeared as a roughly second
> >> magnitude short greenish coloured train with no visible meteor
>at the head,
> >> a sort of "ghost" meteor. It travelled from the sickle of Leo to the east
> >I saw a very unusual meteor on 13/14 December. It too was greenish, very
> >elongated and diffuse with no clear head (no condensation at all). I read
>something
> >about 'worm meteors' somewhere and I wonder if this one could fit into this
> >category? It was a sporadic.
> >
> >Clear skies!
> >
> >Jure A.
>Jure,
>Thanks for the report. That sounds exactly similar the meteor, I saw. This
>is encouraging as I was begining to wonder if I was seeing things. Did you
>record what direction did your meteor come from?
>I had never heard of worm meteors before, can anyone else comment?
>Nick
>Nick Martin, Bonnyton House, By Ayr, Ayrshire KA6 7EW ,Scotland, UK.
> Latitude 55 24'56" Longtitude 4 26' 00".
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