[meteorite-list] re: Satellite Reentry Witness 4

[GeoZay at aol.com]

>>The object was already incandescant when it caught 
my eye.  I think perhaps I caught the last moments of the display, the 
breakup  etc.<<
Then this would explain a short path for a satellite. The one last thing  
that bothers me is the portion you did see along the horizon and it's velocity.  
In that location, it seems to be going too fast for a satellite. Here's what I 
 mean. I just happened to notice yesterday, a high up and distant airliner  
producing contrails close to 20 degrees above the horizon and  traveling pretty 
much parallel to the horizon. It was crawling along. I marked  off about 20 
degrees with my fists and counted 40 seconds and it still not quite  reached 
the 20 degree mark. Still in this case, we are essentially comparing  apples 
with oranges. So I tried another thought process and considered what we  
definitely know...that is, 1) the object traveled about 20 degrees. 2) It was  
traveling about 20 degrees above and parallel to the horizon. 3) The time it  took to 
traverse this 20 degrees was 20 seconds. These numbers should make it  easy 
to get in the ballpark where I can say to myself, " What is most likely...a  
meteor or satellite?" At that location, we end up with a velocity of about 1  
degree per second...seemingly in the realm of a satellite...if it occurred  in 
the zenith. We know the object was traveling very far off and the  distance 
traveled would appear much shorter than if it had occurred in the  zenith. It 
would be like standing between two railroad tracks and following it  with your 
eyes to the horizon. Near the horizon the tracks will appear to have  almost 
converged. Now if I looked at the converging tracks near the horizon and  a 
glowing rock was somehow fired from one track to the other, the distance  covered 
will appear very short. Whereas if this same rock was fired from  one track to 
the other at my feet, it will appear many times longer...I estimate  at least 
3 to 6 times longer. So lets say if the glowing rock between the two  tracks 
near the horizon  took 20 seconds to traverse the distance, it will  also take 
20 seconds for the same rock to pass between the two tracks at my  feet. The 
time for it appeared lit up, will essentially be the same at both  locations. 
So using my estimate of the path length at my feet to be 3 to 6  times than 
that near the horizon, I come up with an estimated distance  traveled of about 60 
to 120 degrees...or 3 to 6 degrees per second. I believe  more in the realm 
of a meteor. Some of the initial estimates may be off and thus  throw any 
accuracy towards either a satellite or a meteor. But my  hunch still wants to lean 
towards your object being more likely that of a meteor  than a satellite. But 
I guess we will never know.
George Zay





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