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Re: (meteorobs) Re: shimmers
Terry, George, et. al.,
Thanks for the anecdotes about shimmering meteors. I have seen this effect
about 2 or 3 times, usually out of corner of my eye as I was guiding at the
time. That's out of maybe 1,000 hours of guiding so they are fairly rare.
Something of that appearence would fit in with the "flying gravelbank"
model, having many small objects impacting the atmosphere more or less at
once...
Now all we need is a photo to 'prove' it! The ones I saw would need an
intensified system to see though, as the whole thing was rather faint (~4th
mag?). How many of our members use such a device? It would take a 4-6mm lens
in front of the intensifier then a monochrome camera behind the output
end...
John Sanford
Starhome
----- Original Message -----
From: Terry Richardson <richardsont@cofcdot edu>
To: <meteorobs@jovian.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2000 2:07 AM
Subject: 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/
>
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>
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> Terry Richardson
> College of Charleston Dept. of Physics
> 58 Coming St., room 101
> Charleston, SC 29424
>
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