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Re: (meteorobs) Strange Leonid...

Dear Chris -- I haven't yet confirmed the direction of the meteor, but 
let's suppose you're right: this meteor is converging rather than 
diverging.  That would certainly raise suspicions!   According to the 
photographer the exposure time was between 7 and 12 seconds, pretty 
short.  So whatever happened to the meteor (as a result of a possible 
camera hiccup) I would expect to see reflected in the background stars as 
well. Yet none of the stars seem to be conspicuously doubled or jostled.

Are you certain about the direction of the meteor?

Regards, Tony


'At 06:44 PM 11/25/01 -0800, Chris Crawford wrote:
>on 11/25/01 3:00 PM, Pierre Martin at p.martin@cyberusdot ca wrote:
>
> > Did anybody see this anomalous Leonid? It appears like the meteor
> > split in two pieces about halfway on its path. It's the first time I
> > see something like that on a high-velocity meteor...
> >
> > http://www.spaceweather.com/meteors/images/18nov01_page4/Andreassen2.jpg
>
>This photo is even odder than you think: the Leonid doesn't split into two,
>it's two meteors merging into one (!) Seriously, if you recognize the star
>field, that's the handle of Ursa Major at the right edge, and the head of
>Draco at the upper left. It's a Leonid all right -- backtrack it from Ursa
>Major and it hits the radiant neatly. The meteor starts near zeta UMa and
>passes directly over nu Dra. So, we are definitely not talking about an odd
>meteor -- we're talking about an odd camera.
>
>I must confess that I am hard put to proffer a convincing explanation. We
>can't attribute it to a bump to the camera because the divergence ends
>during the frame, and ends quite suddenly. My best guess -- and it's pretty
>bad -- is that the photographer passed a pane of glass across the field of
>view from left to right. The meteor was initially seen through the glass,
>which split the image into two components and absorbed some of the light.
>Then the meteor passed beyond the forward edge of the glass and was seen
>normally. This wild hypothesis is supported by the two tracks, the obvious
>absorption of light on the split side, and the fact that one of the two
>tracks is clearly much greener than the other. What argues against it is the
>convergence point, which should be discontinuous if this hypothesis be
>correct.
>
>This is actually a fascinating problem. How DID he get that shot? I'm
>convinced it's an optical effect at the camera, but exactly what?
>
>Chris
>
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The archive and Web site for our list is at http://www.meteorobs.org
If you are interested in complete links on the upcoming LEONIDS, see:
http://www.meteorobs.org/storms.html
To stop getting email from the 'meteorobs' list, use the Web form at:
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