[meteorite-list] Smoke Trail

From: G. Nicula <treasurehunter_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Sep 13 23:17:32 2006
Message-ID: <002301c6d7ac$4efb8110$6401a8c0_at_JOSHUA>

> Are any of these resemble what you saw, George?
> And, yes, a fireball trail could produce a
> "fireball shadow," I suppose. It's just that fireballs
> are a lot rarer than jets! Even a 737 or 747 is hardly
> visible as an object at eight miles high (12 miles
> away at an angle); military jets are even smaller
> (and higher and faster).

I would say "Yes", contrail shadows are almost certainly what i've seen.
Some of the images in the Google search give the illusion that the jet was
heading in a dangerous direction. That also indicates to me that as much as
i'd like that darkness to be the falling remnants of ablation, it's more
likely nothing at all. Which it seems is exactly what a shadow is.

Thanks for your feedback,
George Nicula


----- Original Message -----
From: "Sterling K. Webb" <sterling_k_webb_at_sbcglobal.net>
To: "Mike Groetz" <mpg444_at_yahoo.com>; "G. Nicula"
<treasurehunter_at_chartermi.net>; <meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 9:07 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Smoke Trail


> Hi,
>
> Although I can't pinpoint the date, there was
> a set of photos (interval-timed) from Australia
> of Sydney (?) harbor. One frame showed what
> appeared to be a streak from the sky striking a
> lamp post on a pier. Was it a meteorite? (The
> lamp was blown up.)
> One of the astronomical forums hosted a huge
> discussion of the photo, analysis, frame differences,
> blah, blah. Some thought it was a photo of a bug
> close to the camera, some thought ball lightening,
> some thought the "trail" was the shadow of a
> contrail (the photo was taken at twilight sunset),
> and the guy that suggested this posted a number
> of photos of the shadows of contrails. I didn't
> think this photo in question was explained as a
> contrail shadow (calculated the sun angle and the
> "shadow" angle was different).
> But there is no doubt that there IS such a thing
> as a shadow from a contrail. When I Google
> "contrail shadow" I get lots and lots of stuff:
> http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=contrail+shadow
> Even better, Google Images for "contrail shadow":
> http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=contrail%20shadow&sa=N&tab=wi
> Are any of these resemble what you saw, George?
> And, yes, a fireball trail could produce a
> "fireball shadow," I suppose. It's just that fireballs
> are a lot rarer than jets! Even a 737 or 747 is hardly
> visible as an object at eight miles high (12 miles
> away at an angle); military jets are even smaller
> (and higher and faster).
>
> Sterling K. Webb
> ----------------------------------------------------
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mike Groetz" <mpg444_at_yahoo.com>
> To: "G. Nicula" <treasurehunter_at_chartermi.net>;
> <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 6:31 PM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Smoke Trail
>
>
>> George and list-
>> It is interesting this is brought up; I have seen
>> the same thing. I always thought it to be an optical
>> illusion of some sort (like a reflection adjacent to
>> the contrail) in the atmosphere but now George has me
>> wondering also.
>> Hope someone on the list has some good information
>> covering this.
>> Unless George and I are both goofy and seeing the
>> same things..
>> Mike
>>
>>
>> --- "G. Nicula" <treasurehunter_at_chartermi.net> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello everyone,
>>>
>>> A couple of weeks ago I saw something in the sky
>>> that I recalled seeing once ten years or so ago. A
>>> white streak, not unlike that of a passing jet, with
>>> a shadow of some sort beneath it. This time the
>>> white streak appeared to be heading down to earth at
>>> an angle considered foolish for any jet. The
>>> blackish shadow was a mere copy of the white streak,
>>> but below it. When I saw this many years ago, I
>>> thought of it as some kind of shadow cast onto
>>> something in the air that I couldn't see. But this
>>> time the angle caused me to think that I may have
>>> just missed the opportunity to view a daytime
>>> fireball. Thinking back, I now remember that the
>>> first time I had seen this there were several
>>> streaks of this nature. Something I recently read
>>> about dust has piqued my curiosity.
>>>
>>> Any comments?
>>>
>>> George Nicula>
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>
Received on Wed 13 Sep 2006 11:17:27 PM PDT