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Re: (meteorobs) Re: shimmers
>John Sanford>>I believe I've seen while
>guiding a long exposure photo meteors that look like the last sparkles of a
>"comet" fireworks. They look like a small handfull of particles hit rather
>than a single one, or a not very cohesive little body hits and breaks up
>immediately on impacting the atmosphere.
>
>GeoZay, I've personally only seen one that somewhat resembles what you are
>describing about 6 or 7 years ago. I think I gave it a magnitude of +3 or +4?
>Anyhow, I described it at the time like a dim nebulous "blob" that "sparkled"
>thru out. I believe it was at a relatively medium rate of speed. It was
>during no major shower and was a sporadic. I had a dead on view of it.
I had been intending to query the group's experienced observers about a
meteor similar to Sanford's when I read his message and Zay's response. I
would have to check my notes but the night was the Perseids maximum in 1990
or 91 about 3 AM. The object (objects) appeared to come right out of
Perseus and was a nebulous blob 0.5 degrees in diameter (it struck me as
being the same size as the full moon) and about +3 or +4 in magnitude. It
was entirely diffuse with no sparkles or shimmers within and it glowed,
faded out completely or almost so, and then reappeared and continued to
final extinction.
It would have been about 0.5 miles in diameter or so to have the angular
extent I observed and the only theory I had was an extended cloud of very
faint meteors in the same orbit. I guessed that the fading out might be due
to a skip off the atmosphere but it certainly was brief and I have my own
doubts about that theory. I have since that night wondered about that
object. I was with a group of inexperienced observers and I do not recall
if anyone else saw the thing. I was still pretty alert at that time and the
only beverages we were imbibing had caffeine without any mind-altering
additions.
If George has seen only one of these I imagine they are most uncommon.
Anyone know of any references in the meteor literature about such objects?
*****************************************
Terry Richardson
Department of Physics and Astronomy
College of Charleston
Charleston, SC 29424
pager #937-1048
843 953-8071 phone
843 953-4824 fax
http://www.cofcdot edu/~richardt/
Office Location: Science Center Room 102
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Terry Richardson
College of Charleston Dept. of Physics
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Charleston, SC 29424
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