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Re: (meteorobs) Re: shimmers
One of the most interesting observations I've made in the last four years of
sky watching was an ordinary meteor that skipped off the atmosphere and
traveled directly away from me, sparkling all along. Just beautiful. I
reported it to the list at the time. I looked for it and found a reference to it
on one of my posts 20 june '99, ..."One of the most spectacular meteors I
saw happen to appear normal, then it apparently leveled out and moved
directly away from me. It foreshortened to a point of light, a white dot,
surrounded by the luminous tail for several seconds (with small fares
shooting out) until it died out." I got a very good look as I had time to use
my binoculars, in fact, this was how I saw the details and beauty of the
meteor.
We also had a long discussion about wide and dim meteors within the last
year, which may be related to what John reported. I've always thought that
these type meteors deserved more attention than they have been given
because they may be gas. Their wideness is not caused by how bright they
are so they must be the size they appear to be, 400 to 1200 feet or so wide
and they may be too dim to get a spectrum from.
Dave English
Oceanside, California
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