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Re: (meteorobs) Greenville SC Fireball image captured 8-6-01 ~2230pm EST



Hi,

I've taken a look at the picture and relevant communications. 
http://www.pairlistdot net/pipermail/meteorite-list/2001-August/004844.html states 
the meteor went from NNE to SSW. "Over my shoulder" to me means coming into 
view from behind your back. Which fits the directional description, because the 
picture clearly looks towards Saggitarius, i.e. S-SW. In other words, the 
picture captures the END of the trail, not the beginning. And thus the 
direction is opposite to what is suggested below. At least, That's how I figure 
it out. Nice image by the way! Must have been e very nice meteor too.

Marco Langbroek (Dutch Meteor Society) 




Quoting Robert Verish <bolidechaser@yahoo.com>:

> Rob, I am passing your calculations on to the 
> 'meteorobs' email forum. If the original eyewitness
> doesn't report this fireball sighting, I urge you to
> report your calculations as the next best alternative.
> Use either of the following forms:
> 
>     http://www.amsmeteors.org/fireball/report.html
> 
> Or for print-out and postal mailing, or to cut&paste
> into an email:
>    
> http://Web.InfoAvedot net/~meteorobs/fireball_form.html
> 
> NOTE: Rob is not a 'meteorobs' subscriber. If you
> follow up, please be sure to MANUALLY put
> <ROBERT.D.MATSON@saic.com> in the "Cc:" line of your 
> reply!
> 
> Bob V.
> 
> - ------- Forward Message
> 
> [meteorite-list] Fireball image captured 8-6-01 
> 
> Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON@saic.com> 
> Tue, 7 Aug 2001 10:31:23 -0700
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> Regarding the meteor image captured on digital camera,
> Bernd wrote:
> 
> > What a pity it wasn't taken with a fisheye lens 
> > showing a 360 unobstructed sky view. I wonder if it 
> > was an early Perseid or
> > just a sporadic meteor. The constellation Perseus
> and 
> > the Perseid radiant had already risen low in the 
> > east-northeast
> > and tracing its path backwards leads to the general 
> > direction of Perseus.
> 
> One question I have is which way was it going?  Did
> Scott's image capture the beginning of the trail or
> the end?  His statement, "the brightest meteor I ever
> saw came over my shoulder and I captured part of it"
> could mean either direction (though I suspect he meant
> from in front of him to behind him).  Based on the
> gradual change in the trail brightness, I'm assuming
> he caught the beginning, and that the end is out of
> the frame.  If so,
> I've extracted two coordinates from his image in case
> anyone wants to plot the track to determine if it
> intersects a known radiant.  
> The track ends (I assume) in Sagittarius at local
> coordinates ~azimuth 181.5, elevation 31.5d, with a
> SSW heading.  The track also passes very close to mag
> 3.85 alpha Scuti (the brightest star in the trapezoid
> in the upper left corner) at roughly RA 18h 36.5m, Dec
> -8.3d.
> So the track was heading toward Aquila followed by
> Sagitta, and would later intersect Cygnus, splitting
> eta- and epsilon-Cygni.
> 
> 
> > A Kappa Cygnid? Probably too early! This shower 
> > produces only a few meteors per hour, but some of 
> > them are flaring fireballs
> > and the time would fit: early evening hours with the
> 
> > radiant in NW Cygnus nearly overhead.
> 
> The track looks like it would pass at least 10-15
> degrees southeast of kappa (and of course, the meteor
> would need to have been going in the direction I'm
> assuming).
> 
> > The Delta Aquarids also come to mind with a radiant 
> > near RA 22h 36m
> > and a declination of -17=B0. They have a double 
> > radiant. Radiant #2 lies just north of the above 
> > coordinates, on the celestial equator.
> 
> Can rule these out -- too far off track in either
> direction.
> 
> > Harold Povenmire's famous Upsilon Pegasids peak near
> 
> > Aug 8, but he describes them as rather faint, 
> > typically 3.5 mags, and leaving no trains.
> >
> > Well, Mars was magnitude -1.4 on that date, and 
> > Antares is about 0.96 (about 4 cm to the lower right
> 
> > in the 4 o'clock position),
> > so I would guess its brightness was about -1 to -2.
> 
> Given that Mars and the rest of the stars are
> stationary during the exposure, and the meteor was
> probably travelling at at least 15 degrees/second, the
> meteor's effective exposure time on any one pixel was
> probably less than 1/100th of a second.  Compared to
> the 60-second exposure, that represents a dimming of
> over a factor of 6000, or more than 9 visual
> magnitudes.  Given that a Mars-sized piece of the
> track appears to be comparable in brightness to Mars
> itself (though the image is probably saturated), the
> meteor had to be at least as bright as -10.
> 
> Cheers,
> Rob Matson
> 
> References:
> 
> http://www.pbase.com/image/227663
> 
> <http://www.pairlistdot net/pipermail/meteorite-list/2001-August/004825.html>
> 
> <http://www.pairlistdot net/pipermail/meteorite-list/2001-August/004844.html>
> - ------- End of Forwarded Message
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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