[meteorite-list] A Twisted Meteor Trail Over Tenerife

From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2010 19:48:21 -0500
Message-ID: <1CA139A68F8C41CEA331D2ABB9AE381B_at_ATARIENGINE2>

Hi, Listoids,

Rob is right. As usual.

Not having done any astrophotography, I had
the trail direction wrong and a misconception
of the duration of the event.

Obviously, I need more coffee...


Sterling K. Webb
--------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Matson, Robert D." <ROBERT.D.MATSON at saic.com>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2010 6:51 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] A Twisted Meteor Trail Over Tenerife


> Hi Sterling,
>
>> If there was a "bump" during the last few seconds of a 1-minute
> exposure,
>> the exposure of the right-most 97% of the trail would be 97% complete
> --
>> and straight. Only the left end would be "wiggled." Wiggling of the
> right
>> end would be very, very faint, if visible at all. Not a bump.
>
> I'm not sure I follow you. A bump (and the meteor) could have occurred
> at
> any time during the exposure, not just the beginning or end.
>
>> However, the sinusoidal "motion" can be traced back to the start of
> the
>> trail. There are slightly more than 8 full cycles recorded, each of
>> increasing amplitude.
>
> *Increasing* amplitude? So you are suggesting that the meteor was
> rising
> as seen by the observer? While this is certainly possible (e.g. a very
> shallow entry angle), it is far more likely that the meteor was moving
> left to right in this image, not right to left. I believe the bump
> (whether by wind, bat, bug, human or magna) occurred a little before
> the meteor first appeared, perfectly explaining the appearance of the
> trail: high initial amplitude, damped down to nothing after 8 or 9
> cycles. --Rob
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Received on Wed 02 Jun 2010 08:48:21 PM PDT