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APOD: Perseid Fireball at Sunset Crater (2016 Aug 19)

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 4:07 am
by APOD Robot
Image Perseid Fireball at Sunset Crater

Explanation: On the night of August 12, this bright Perseid meteor flashed above volcanic Sunset Crater National Monument, Arizona, USA, planet Earth. Streaking along the summer Milky Way, its initial color is likely due to the shower meteor's characteristically high speed. Entering at 60 kilometers per second, Perseid meteors are capable of exciting green emission from oxygen atoms while passing through the tenuous atmosphere at high altitudes. Also characteristic of bright meteors, this Perseid left a visibly glowing persistent train. Its evolution is seen over a three minute sequence (left to right) spanning the bottom of the frame. The camera ultimately captured a dramatic timelapse video of the twisting, drifting train.

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Re: APOD: Perseid Fireball at Sunset Crater (2016 Aug 19)

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 4:10 am
by Ann
This is a fine demonstration of the color-changing nature of meteors! :D

There are some fine-looking blue stars there in the eastern part of Aquila. Got to check them up when I can get to my software. :wink:

Ann

Re: APOD: Perseid Fireball at Sunset Crater (2016 Aug 19)

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 5:02 am
by Boomer12k
Interesting... detail about meteors... and then gone with the wind....

Whole lotta meteors goin' on.....

:---[===] *

Re: APOD: Perseid Fireball at Sunset Crater (2016 Aug 19)

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 9:22 am
by Brit_in_Exile
Anyone notice the second Perseid strike in the timelapse video.........cool !

Re: APOD: Perseid Fireball at Sunset Crater (2016 Aug 19)

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 11:57 am
by mtbdudex
Kudos Jeremy on this capture and the magnificent video, very cool and inspiring


Re: APOD: Perseid Fireball at Sunset Crater (2016 Aug 19)

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 5:38 pm
by Fred the Cat
The term "persistent train" reminds me of Stephen King's "Blaine the Mono" but much more ephemeral and not nearly as evil. Some seem to last a fairly long time and the physics of the phenomena seems worthy of much more study. Thanks for today's persistent Perseid! :ssmile:

Re: APOD: Perseid Fireball at Sunset Crater (2016 Aug 19)

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 7:12 pm
by Ann
Ann wrote:This is a fine demonstration of the color-changing nature of meteors! :D

There are some fine-looking blue stars there in the eastern part of Aquila. Got to check them up when I can get to my software. :wink:

Ann
It's bad form to quote myself, but I have now checked out the blue stars. The bluest-looking one is, I think, Iota Aquilae, a faint fourth magnitude star of spectral class B5. It is looking delicately blue indeed. The brightest star just to the left of the obvious Milky Way is first magnitude star Altair. Some distance below Altair are two fainter stars, one reddish at right and one bluish at left. The reddish star is Mu Aquilae and the bluish one is Sigma Aquilae. Some distance almost below Sigma Aquilae is a brightish star, Delta Aquilae, and some distance almost to the left of that one is blue Iota Aquilae.

One thing confuses me, however. Below Aquila is an asterism that very much looks like Corona Australis to me. That suggests that Corona Australis is almost directly "below" Aquila. But that's not the case, because Sagittarius is located between Aquila and Corona Australis. I can't see Sagittarius in this picture.

Ann

Re: APOD: Perseid Fireball at Sunset Crater (2016 Aug 19)

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 8:01 pm
by Fred the Cat
Iota. Now there's a term that doesn't get much respect. Not one iota. (Love the Fantastic Fact #5)

As for trying to find Aquila in today's APOD – I give. :roll: But Corona Australis does seem a bit more obvious.

Re: APOD: Perseid Fireball at Sunset Crater (2016 Aug 19)

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 9:17 pm
by BMAONE23
Fred the Cat wrote:The term "persistent train" reminds me of Stephen King's "Blaine the Mono" but much more ephemeral and not nearly as evil. Some seem to last a fairly long time and the physics of the phenomena seems worthy of much more study. Thanks for today's persistent Perseid! :ssmile:
I don't think Blaine was necessarily evil, just heartbroken and depressed over the loss of his mate and having suffered alone since the world had "Moved On"
I am hopeful for a 7 or more movie series, "The Dark Tower" currently in Post-production, having read the 7 book series.

Re: APOD: Perseid Fireball at Sunset Crater (2016 Aug 19)

Posted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 9:49 pm
by Fred the Cat
BMAONE23 wrote:
Fred the Cat wrote:The term "persistent train" reminds me of Stephen King's "Blaine the Mono" but much more ephemeral and not nearly as evil. Some seem to last a fairly long time and the physics of the phenomena seems worthy of much more study. Thanks for today's persistent Perseid! :ssmile:
I don't think Blaine was necessarily evil, just heartbroken and depressed over the loss of his mate and having suffered alone since the world had "Moved On"
I am hopeful for a 7 or more movie series, "The Dark Tower" currently in Post-production, having read the 7 book series.
True. Just a lonely train. They were a great "listen"! Stephen King read many of the audiobooks himself and he did an excellent job. I hope it's a better book to movie conversion than "Under the Dome." :thumb_down:

Re: APOD: Perseid Fireball at Sunset Crater (2016 Aug 19)

Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2016 6:04 am
by Ann
Fred the Cat wrote:Iota. Now there's a term that doesn't get much respect. Not one iota. (Love the Fantastic Fact #5)

As for trying to find Aquila in today's APOD – I give. :roll: But Corona Australis does seem a bit more obvious.
Constellation Aquila. Picture: Fred Espenak, http://www.AstroPixels.com
What I'm saying, Fred, is that Corona Australis is where it shouldn't be in the sky. Corona Australis and Aquila are not located close to one another in the sky at all.

Moreover, I don't think I can see all of Aquila, either. Take a look at the image at left. Spotting Altair, Alpha Aquilae, in a good photograph is not hard. Altair itself is bright, and it is flanked by two other obvious stars, Alshain (Beta) and Tarazed (Gamma). Tarazed will stand out in a good color photograph, because it is quite reddish. Spotting Altair and Alshain and Tarazed in Friday's APOD is not hard.

You can also spot the outstretched "wings" of Aquila. The wing tips are located at opposite sides of the "dark divide" in the Milky Way, which is quite obvious in this photograph. To the right of that dark divide are stars Zeta (ζ) and Epsilon (ε). They are actually quite close to the brightest part of the meteor in the APOD, and apparently both are called Deneb Al Okab, for some reason. To the left of the dark divide, you can see three almost equally spaced stars drawing a diagonal line to the upper left in this photograph. These three stars are Delta (δ), Eta (η) and Theta (θ).

But something is a bit strange even here. Theta is actually a relatively blue star, with a decidedly negative B-V index. In a good color photograph, this third magnitude star would look bluish, but it doesn't here. However, two other stars, fourth magnitude Iota and fifth magnitude Sigma, do look blue. Do they look blue because they are exactly bright enough for their color not to be overwhelmed by their brightness in the APID? That's possible. They don't look blue in Fred Espenak's illustration.

But now check out the lower part of Aquila. In Fred Espenak's illustration, you can spot the designation of the star I'm looking for: Lambda (λ) Aquilae. It's a third magnitude, moderately blue star, it looks blue in good RGB images, and I always look for it in photographs of Aquila. In today's APOD, I can't see it.

By the way, when you are looking at Fred Espenak's picture, don't miss the little reddish spot to the lower right of Lambda, and to the left of a yellow star which is called Iota (ι) in Fred Espenak's image. (That's wrong; that yellow star is 12 Aquilae.) But can you see that reddish spot? That's V Aquilae, a deep red carbon star. Do check it out through a telescope if you get the chance!

Ann

Re: APOD: Perseid Fireball at Sunset Crater (2016 Aug 19)

Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2016 6:11 am
by Ann
Oh! :oops: Oh! :oops: Oh! :oops: My bad! My bad!

What I thought was Corona Australis in today's APOD is really Lambda Aquilae plus a number of unrelated stars surrounding it!!! It isn't Corona Australis at all!!

Why did I think it was Corona Australis? Because it looked quite like it, and it didn't look like Lambda Aquilae at all to me. And why not?

Because it didn't look the least bit blue, and to me, the blue color of Lambda Aquilae is by far its most important and dominant characteristic. As for the semicircle of stars that it seems to be the brightest member of, I have never even noticed it.

Take a look at the picture at left. Surely you can see Lambda Aquilae*s blue color? Lambda is the bluish star near the "bottom" of Aquila. Just follow the constellation line downward, and you'll find it.

I have very long known that Lambda is blue, and I haven't been able to think of it otherwise...

Sorry! My bad!

Ann (who is sometimes too much of a Color Commentator)

Re: APOD: Perseid Fireball at Sunset Crater (2016 Aug 19)

Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2016 8:02 pm
by echo
The camera ultimately captured a dramatic timelapse video of the twisting, drifting train.

Nope. As of 08/31/16, 'sorry, this video doesn not exist.'

bummer.

Due to the cloud cover and rain here, as usual, i was, again, unable to see any Perseids.

Re: APOD: Perseid Fireball at Sunset Crater (2016 Aug 19)

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 11:36 pm
by Jeremy Perez
echo wrote:The camera ultimately captured a dramatic timelapse video of the twisting, drifting train.

Nope. As of 08/31/16, 'sorry, this video doesn not exist.'

bummer.

Due to the cloud cover and rain here, as usual, i was, again, unable to see any Perseids.
Hi Echo, I'm sorry you weren't able to see the video. I tried the link yesterday and again just now and it seems to be okay...perhaps try this link --> https://vimeo.com/178654321

Wishing you better chances with the Perseids in the future!