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RE: (meteorobs) Dim Meteors vs. Hallucinations
Wayne Hally wrote in response to Chuck Urrey's query:
> What makes you think that they are not meteors? For every 1st magnitude
> meteor there are 16 to 81 (depending on the shower) 5th magnitude meteors,
> which would be dim, many of which would be rapid, streaks across the sky.
> There are always many more meteors at the threshold of detection, than
> there are meteors that slap you across the face. Of course, since they are
> at the threshold of detection, most of them are not reliably seen...rather
> they are in the "Did I see that or not?" category.
Jiri Grygar and Lubos Kohoutek (of comet fame) analysed simultaneous
telescopic observations made in a 1958 expedition. The "ghosts" as
these authors called them, appeared to be mostly dim meteors based
upon the direction distribution. Here's the online reference.
http://adsbit.harvarddot edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1960BAICz..11..135K
That's one reason why experienced observers see more telescopic
meteors than novices---they recognise more faint meteors.
Like Wayne I don't doubt that the same effect applies visually, though
my gut feeling is that the "hallucinations" are more frequent with the
unaided eye, as more peripheral vision and eye motion is used.
Malcolm
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