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RE: (meteorobs) Re: shimmers



John and all:

Watching for Perseids around 10:30pm local time from my dark backyard (lm ~
6.5-7.0 with the moon just dropping out of the sky in the west) on August
11/12, 1994, a few friends and I saw a spectacular "shimmering" meteor.  It
was short-lived but quite unique.  It quickly brightened, the head glowing
at -1 or -2, and was a very distinct blue.  The "train" (if you can call it
that) resembled a cobalt sparkler and spanned about 7 or 8 degrees behind
the head.  Each of the 100+ blue sparklies the meteor left behind glowed for
only a fraction of a second.  The meteor gently faded in brightness from
start to end--as if it were shedding material that was decreasing it's
luminosity and that material was glowing as it was left behind.  The whole
event lasted approx. 4 seconds with the meteor traveling only 20 degrees or
so.  It came from Aquarius and travled north through Pisces just above the
eastern horizon.

Is this similar to any of your photos?

--Terry Johnson





> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Sanford [mailto:johnsan@sosinetdot net]
> Sent: Monday, October 30, 2000 4:37 PM
> To: meteorobs@jovian.com
> Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Re: shimmers
>
>
> And now something completely different:
> Has any of you long-time observers seen a type of meteor that
> I could swear
> I've  seen but may be an optical delusion... 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. It's very beautiful
> but I've never
> been looking directly at it when one such thing happens,
> therefore the doubt
> in my mind... It's a very beautiful and delicate shimmery
> thing, but I don't
> know if it's real or not!
> Thanks for any thoughts on this!
> John Sanford
> Starhome
> Sierra Foothils
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
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