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Re: (meteorobs) Telescopic observation of meteor trails
Nick Martin wrote:
> I have seen a few meteors as they accidentally cross the field of view of my
> 20" F4.4 Dobsonian reflector usually being used with a 12 mm widefield
> Nagler eyepiece (total magnification X180). Several of the brighter ones (
> probably about mags in the 4,5,6or 7 sort of range but I am not sure) left
> short lived trails around 1 minute of arc or so across, from just behind the
> meteor. The trails were orange in colour and seemed to puff outward as
> though a sausage skin was being inflated by luminous gas. The time
> resolution of the eye is of course limited but the impression was of fast
> but visible expansion to a definite diameter (hence the sausage skin
> analogy). The expansion gave the impession of starting from a point a litle
> behind the actual meteor but again this was only an impression. The trains I
> have seen so far faded within a few seconds so I can't comment on their
> further progress.
> It would be interesting to hear of anyone elses telescopic observations of
> meteor trails.
Are we talking trails or trains? I can't say that I recall trails
puffing as the telescopic meteors are so fast. OTOH the majority of
trains do expand and appear as hollow shells. The telescopic trains
look grey to me. Could the colour be from low-pressure-sodium light
pollution? The drift from the trail is quite noticeable too. More
rarely some trains sparkle or are grainy, and even more unusual are
patterned ones, presumably from a flattened meteoroid.
Malcolm
> Nick
> Nick Martin, Bonnyton House, By Ayr, Ayrshire KA6 7EW ,Scotland, UK.
> Latitude 55 24'56" Longtitude 4 26' 00".
>
>
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