[meteorite-list] A Twisted Meteor Trail Over Tenerife: camera

From: Fred Bieler <fcb_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2010 17:48:39 -0500
Message-ID: <007c01cb036e$e8f976e0$baec64a0$_at_com>

I believe the smaller second meteor trail at the right is the same as the
large one at the left (which is just a blowup of the small one so it is
easier to see the wiggles). Check the star patterns. They are the same
around the two trails. And I still think the "trailing" of the stars is due
to coma in the camera lens, since the trailing in the corners of the field
do not all fall on the same axis.

The stars in the image look comatic, probably due to lens aberrations in the
presumably wide open aperture. Look at the star images in all corners of the
image. Their side to side blur is clearly a comatic fan tangential to the
radius in the corners. Look particularly at the bright stars to the lower
right side of the tower in the upper right side of the image. Blow the image
up as much as possible and you can clearly see the curved fan of coma aiming
at the center of the field. Stars at the lower left corner have the comatic
fan curved in the opposite direction, but again pointing at the center of
the field. The side to side comatic blurs clearly do not all parallel the
side to side wiggle in the meteor trail, making tripod shake much less
probable.

Fred Bieler
Astronomics/Christophers, Ltd./Cloudy Nights
www.astronomics.com
800.422.7876

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Murray
Paulson
Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2010 4:47 PM
To: Matson, Robert D.
Cc: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] A Twisted Meteor Trail Over Tenerife: camera
bump

Hi:

Note the second meteor trail is also wiggly. And as Robert noted it is
in the same axix as the "trailing" of the stars, This must have been
high frequency vibration to produce that many periods on the train.

Murray

On Wed, Jun 2, 2010 at 3:38 PM, Matson, Robert D.
<ROBERT.D.MATSON at saic.com> wrote:
> Hi Paul,
>
>> A Twisted Meteor Trail Over Tenerife
>> Astronomy Picture of the Day, June 2, 2010
> http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100602.html
>
>> "Did this meteor take a twisting path? No one is sure. Considered
> opinions are solicited."
>
>> APOD: A Twisted Meteor Trail Over Tenerife (2010 Jun 02)
>> http://bb.nightskylive.net/asterisk/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=19638
>>
> http://bb.nightskylive.net/asterisk/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=19638&sid=651816
> 506a79643b02a83499866b4cdb&start=25
>
> There is no doubt that this wiggle was due to a camera bump during the
> 1-minute
> exposure. A meteor at low elevation angle means it was fairly distant --
> at least
> 300 km. ?The amplitude of the sinuoidal motion is so great that no
> meteoroid of
> *any* shape, no matter how bizarre, could move in this fashion. For
> those still
> in doubt, look at the stars in the zoomed insert: they, too, are
> blurred, with
> a long axis that is consistent with the direction of the meteor
> oscillations.
>
> --Rob
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Received on Thu 03 Jun 2010 06:48:39 PM PDT