[meteorite-list] re: Satellite Reentry Witness 4

[Kevin Forbes]

G'day George, I wish I had some documentation to rely upon, but do not. I 
have a feeling that it was in the winter period down here, though, I do seem 
to remember being cold, and standing on the platform, instead of sitting and 
freezing my backside off. The object was already incandescant when it caught 
my eye. I think perhaps I caught the last moments of the display, the 
breakup etc.
Keeping in mind folks, I often watch satellites in the sky after the Sun has 
set, they are travelling at leisurely and recognisable pace or velocity 
relative to the star background. Re-stating, I have never seen a meteor 
travelling at the same slow pace, they are always much quicker.

In the meteor videos I have watched, the bolide and its children are still 
traveling faster than that which I saw that night. But, then again, it was 
very low on the horizon, and no doubt much further away, this may have 
reduced it's apparent velocity greatly.

Kevin, VK3UKF.
>
>
> >>Kevin wrote:
> > The thing I saw, was comparable to an  aircraft at a distance. But did 
>not
> > traverse the entire sky, it was  perhaps only 10-20 degrees parallel to 
>the
> > horizon, it didn't move  or cover much more than the general direction 
>of
> > looking to the  North.<<
>
>Marco>>Now, indeed with a 20 second duration  this DOES sound like a
>satellite decay for
>a change.  :-)<<
>I personally have never heard of anyone reporting a re entering satellite
>that lasted only 20 seconds. But I have heard of meteors lasting well over 
>20
>seconds before extinguishment (such as the 1972 Grand Teton around 101  
>seconds
>and the Peekskill Fireball lasting 40 seconds).  Low on the  horizon, a
>meteor can appear slower than at the zenith due to the further  distance 
>involved.
>It can also appear even slower if the meteor was traveling  in a direction
>that was slightly heading either toward or away from an  observer rather 
>than
>from a true left to right (or right to left :O)). If this  was a satellite 
>that
>lasted only 20 seconds before burning up...it will be the  first for me to 
>hear
>of such a case. Until the short 20 second life span can  be explained, my
>money is still on a meteor. I wonder what month this  occurred?
>George Zay
>
>
>
>


>______________________________________________
>Meteorite-list mailing list
>Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list