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Re: (meteorobs) Strange Leonid...
on 11/26/01 3:43 AM, Tom Eklund at tom.eklund@pp2.inet.fi wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I am situated in southern Finland (Geographic Longitude = 24E; Geographic
> Latitude = 61N; Corrected Magnetic Latitude = 57) and saw a faint aurora
> during that night. So, in my mind there is no question about it that was
> aurora visible from northern Norway..dot it certainly must have been.
>
> Tom Eklund
I emailed the photographer last night and he replied this morning, saying
that he'd send me details later today. I knew that my sloppy wording of my
previous message would get me into trouble. My intent was to add one more
oddity to the list of oddities about that photo; the impression I gave was
that I was questioning the integrity of the photographer. My apologies to
all for my poor wording.
I think that Esko's explanation solves the problem. Its first weakness is
that it assumes a fairly bright, long-lasting train. This assumption is not
a bad one at all; there are plenty of Leonids that show such trains, and
since this was an earth-grazer, it seems even more likely. The second
weakness is that the transition from trail to meteor, on the upper leg of
the bifurcated trail, is too sharp. If the Leonid had been at that point
when the shutter was opened, and was generating a strong trail, then I'd
expect the transition Leonid to trail to be smoother. Still, these are minor
points; where previous hypothesis required outlandish assumptions, Esko's
explanation requires only slightly improbable assumptions.
Chris
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