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Re: (meteorobs) FW: It's that time of year again...





>>Well now this is getting really odd.  From my limited experience and
knowledge I was under the impression that fire balls were somewhat of a rare
sight for the average person. <<


That's because the average person isn't looking up for any length of time per night. I haven't done any observing in the last 3 or 4 years and haven't seen over 5 meteors yet any fireballs. But during the 7 or 8 years prior while quite actively observing, I have recorded over 300 fireballs. This included a fair number prior to midnight. Most were shower members, but a fair number were sporadics. Of the sporadics though, probably less than 10 and maybe even 5, were of something I would think of as might being of astroidal origin. Basing this on relatively slow speeds. Now these I would think of as being rare despite "25,000 meteorites/year".

>>In 59 years I had never seen one and a good

deal of my time has been spent backpacking.  Of course the natural past time
for a backpacker is to watch the night sky. <<

Not necessarily...my wife is and has been a very active backpacker for at least the last 23 years and I think she has only mentioned to me once about seeing a bright meteor. Knowing her, if she seen any bright meteors, she wouldn't forget to mention it to me. She's on a backpack or canoeing event at least 3 trips per month for 3 or 4 day periods. I don't think watching the night sky is a natural past time for most backpackers. The reason is this....after a strenuous hike most of the day, they then find a place to make camp, set up and cook a meal....chat a little or some small activity prior to dark...then after dark a short period around a little camp fire. Usually by 9:30 pm, the serious backpackers I've been around and that would be many hundreds by now, almost all are in bed dead tired. Very little sky watching is done, unless I was the one to force them to look up as I point out the constellations.


  >>Now fire balls
have been seen and reported, and made for much conversation and speculations
on the old Art Bell show.  It sort of gave the impression that these objects
were in fact rare.<<


Fireballs of all kinds aren't really that rare....what's rare is people looking up in the sky long enough to notice one. A couple casual glances while walking from the parking lot to the movies or singing songs around a camp fire before turning in doesn't create the best opportune moments to see a fireball.

>>Now here I am writing to many scientific types , who seem to be saying that
these things during certain times of the year are as common as dirt.  How
odd that in all my years outside I seem to have missed all that dirt. <<


During my observing heydey, I'd average about 6 nights per month on a serious observing regimen. Often starting about 9 or 10 pm and go till dawn. It would seem to me that I would come across something in the -3 or brighter class about at least every third observing night. This would be the case from January thru about June. Then with more meteor activity as well as showers, almost every night one would turn up from July thru December.
George Zay