Hi,
Although I can't pinpoint the date, there was
a set of photos (interval-timed) from Australia
of Sydney (?) harbor. One frame showed what
appeared to be a streak from the sky striking a
lamp post on a pier. Was it a meteorite? (The
lamp was blown up.)
One of the astronomical forums hosted a huge
discussion of the photo, analysis, frame differences,
blah, blah. Some thought it was a photo of a bug
close to the camera, some thought ball lightening,
some thought the "trail" was the shadow of a
contrail (the photo was taken at twilight sunset),
and the guy that suggested this posted a number
of photos of the shadows of contrails. I didn't
think this photo in question was explained as a
contrail shadow (calculated the sun angle and the
"shadow" angle was different).
But there is no doubt that there IS such a thing
as a shadow from a contrail. When I Google
"contrail shadow" I get lots and lots of stuff:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=contrail+shadow
Even better, Google Images for "contrail shadow":
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=contrail%20shadow&sa=N&tab=wi
Are any of these resemble what you saw, George?
And, yes, a fireball trail could produce a
"fireball shadow," I suppose. It's just that fireballs
are a lot rarer than jets! Even a 737 or 747 is hardly
visible as an object at eight miles high (12 miles
away at an angle); military jets are even smaller
(and higher and faster).
Sterling K. Webb
----------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Groetz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "G. Nicula" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 6:31 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Smoke Trail
George and list-
It is interesting this is brought up; I have seen
the same thing. I always thought it to be an optical
illusion of some sort (like a reflection adjacent to
the contrail) in the atmosphere but now George has me
wondering also.
Hope someone on the list has some good information
covering this.
Unless George and I are both goofy and seeing the
same things..
Mike
--- "G. Nicula" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hello everyone,
A couple of weeks ago I saw something in the sky
that I recalled seeing once ten years or so ago. A
white streak, not unlike that of a passing jet, with
a shadow of some sort beneath it. This time the
white streak appeared to be heading down to earth at
an angle considered foolish for any jet. The
blackish shadow was a mere copy of the white streak,
but below it. When I saw this many years ago, I
thought of it as some kind of shadow cast onto
something in the air that I couldn't see. But this
time the angle caused me to think that I may have
just missed the opportunity to view a daytime
fireball. Thinking back, I now remember that the
first time I had seen this there were several
streaks of this nature. Something I recently read
about dust has piqued my curiosity.
Any comments?
George Nicula>
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