APOD: Leonid Fireball over Tenerife (2011 Nov 22)

[APOD Robot]

Leonid Fireball over Tenerife

Explanation: Historically active, this year's Leonid meteor shower was diminished by bright moonlight. Still, faithful night sky watchers did see the shower peak on November 18 and even the glare of moonlight didn't come close to masking this brilliant fireball meteor. The colorful meteor trail and final flare was captured early that morning in western skies over the Canary Island Observatorio del Teide on Tenerife. Particles of dust swept up when planet Earth passes near the orbit of periodic comet Tempel-Tuttle, Leonid meteors typically enter the atmosphere at nearly 70 kilometers per second. Looking away from the Moon, the wide angle camera lens also recorded bright stars in the familiar constellations Orion and Taurus near picture center. Inset are two exposures of this fireball's persistent train. The consecutive train images follow the meteor's flash by several minutes as high altitude winds disperse the faint, smokey trail. The two large telescope buildings are the GREGOR telescope with reddish dome and the Vacuum Tower Telescope along the right edge of the frame, both sun watching telescopes.

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[billM]

A perspective question.

70 Kilometers per sec works out to 252,000 kilometers per hour. Thus this meteor could have been passing the moon and hour before this image was taken? Just trying to get a handle on these speeds and distances.

[cketter]

1 12mm fixed focal length lens for my amateur DSLR. $500 - 1200$
1 Remote switch with timelaps capabilities. $20+
1 Solar telescope $250+
1 12in reflector $2000+
Move away from city lights and watch meteor showers: priceless.

[cketter]

A perspective question.

70 Kilometers per sec works out to 252,000 kilometers per hour. Thus this meteor could have been passing the moon and hour before this image was taken? Just trying to get a handle on these speeds and distances.

1.5 hours earlier and the meteoroid would have been passing the moons orbit. (384,000 km). Yes, this is very fast, which is why we see so much light from such small particles, because they have large kinetic energies.

[Ann]

A green "orb" or patch is seen to the upper left of Aldebaran in the Hyades. The green object looks like a comet. But surely there is no comet there right now?

Ann

[Boomer12k]

Orion shooting an arrow?

:----===== *

[Astronymus]

A green "orb" or patch is seen to the upper left of Aldebaran in the Hyades. The green object looks like a comet. But surely there is no comet there right now?

Ann

Lens flare?

[Indigo_Sunrise]

A green "orb" or patch is seen to the upper left of Aldebaran in the Hyades. The green object looks like a comet. But surely there is no comet there right now?

Ann

Good catch, Ann. I was going to point out the extreme red colored dots, one slightly left of the faint 'end' (top) of the fireball, and the other at about the eleven o'clock position from the first, kind of between Rigel and Aldebaran.
ETA: upon further inspection, there seem to be a number of these deep red colored dots.

Maybe these are bad pixels, but I'm not sure what your 'green orb' could be..... We could call it: Ann's Voorwerp!

[neptunium]

I've been seeing many of those, too. They may be picture artifacts of some sort.

[TNT]

I wish the Praesepe could be seen. It is just off the top if this image, in the constellation Cancer, my zodiac sign!

[Chris Peterson]

70 Kilometers per sec works out to 252,000 kilometers per hour. Thus this meteor could have been passing the moon and hour before this image was taken? Just trying to get a handle on these speeds and distances.

Leonids actually enter the atmosphere at 72 km/s (not "nearly 70"). So given a typical lunar distance of 384,000 km, a Leonid meteoroid could cover that distance in 5,333 seconds, or 1.5 hours. Of course, the Moon would have to be in the correct spot in its orbit for a Leonid to pass right by it before hitting the Earth- it usually would not be.

[luigi]

A green "orb" or patch is seen to the upper left of Aldebaran in the Hyades. The green object looks like a comet. But surely there is no comet there right now?

Ann

Lens flare?

I think it's a flare from the moon that is above the photo if I'm correct.

['Toine]

Hi everybody, I've been intrigued by this green orb near Aldebaran too. It looks like a planetary nebula, but there isn't any planetary nebula here, especially bright and big like this. I've searched if there's not any comets in this part of the sky those days, but there's just Garradd in Hercule. So what can it be? Could it be an artefact? If someone have an idea

[Chris Peterson]

Hi everybody, I've been intrigued by this green orb near Aldebaran too. It looks like a planetary nebula, but there isn't any planetary nebula here, especially bright and big like this. I've searched if there's not any comets in this part of the sky those days, but there's just Garradd in Hercule. So what can it be? :?: Could it be an artefact? :shock: If someone have an idea :mrgreen:

Whenever you see green halos or fuzzy spots in a nighttime image made with an ordinary camera lens, you should suspect some sort of internal reflection. Camera lenses have many surfaces, and they normally have antireflection coatings that have a peak reflectivity in the green part of the spectrum.

This could be a ghost reflection of Aldeberan (likely, given that it is near the optical axis), of another bright star, of one of the artificial lights on the ground, or of something outside the field completely, like the Moon.

[islader2]

Wow!!! If I stayed with this site long enough==I would be an "in" reader to something unusual. Ann has discovered a quasar light echo!

[Astronymus]

A green "orb" or patch is seen to the upper left of Aldebaran in the Hyades. The green object looks like a comet. But surely there is no comet there right now?

Ann

Lens flare?

I think it's a flare from the moon that is above the photo if I'm correct.

I think so too.