Bright meteor

Meteors are something that I usually catch in the corner of my
eye while setting up the telescope, or else spot while I'm
patiently waiting for the CCD exposure to finish. Last weekend
was no different in this regard but the meteor I spotted appeared
unusual in some aspects. Coming from the east (just "up" from
Algol in Perseus) it was much slower and had a shorter
trail (about half the width of my hand, or ~5 degrees) than the
swift meteors I usually see coming from this direction. Second,
the trail was very distinctly green and lingered on for a
while (some 15 seconds) while loosing its color. All in all, the
impression was that of a firerocket, except of course that it
appeared in mid sky from nowhere and followed a straight, if
short, path. Could the apparent slow speed indicate that the
meteor was on a nearly straight-on course? Or perhaps it was just
a slow moving object that Earth caught up?

pej
--
Per Erik Jorde

On Sep 10, 10:20 am, Per Erik Jorde wrote:
Meteors are something that I usually catch in the corner of my
eye while setting up the telescope, or else spot while I'm
patiently waiting for the CCD exposure to finish. Last weekend
was no different in this regard but themeteorI spotted appeared
unusual in some aspects. Coming from the east (just "up" from
Algol in Perseus) it was much slower and had a shorter
trail (about half the width of my hand, or ~5 degrees) ...
Could the apparent slow speed indicate that themeteorwas
on a nearly straight-on course? Or perhaps it was just
a slow moving object that Earth caught up?


As you suggest, foreshortening can cause the effect you
observed.

After noting the time of day and direction you can visualize
the orientation of the incoming meteor with respect to the
Earth's orbital motion. At midnight, a meteor that traverses
the sky from west to east is 'catching up' with the Earth.

--

FF