Off topic reply to an off topic reply to an off topic post.... :-)

A bit of terminology: a meteor is what we see in the sky burning up in the 
atmosphere overhead.  Meteors are also called fireballs or bolides, 
particularly if they are very bright.  Before they enter the atmosphere and 
appear as meteors, they are either asteroids or meteoroids (size is probably 
what distinguishes an asteroid from a meteoroid...).  Once they land on the 
ground they are meteorites, which is the rock you see in a museum.

The smoke trail you saw is called a train and bright fireballs tend to leave 
trains, some last for many minutes and twist in the upper atmospheric winds 
(if any of you have seen the contrail from a rocket launch as it gets blown 
around in the wind, the same sort of thing happens to a meteors train).  The 
trains are really just mostly ionized air - hardly any of the object is left 
behind as smoke in the trian.  Space Shuttle re-entries are good examples of 
that - the shuttle (at least when it doesn't have a hole in the wing) does 
not erode away at all, yet you can see a horizon to horizon contrail after it 
passes and that contrail is strictly affected atmosphere - same with meteors.

The telescopes on Mt. Graham are being used - especially the Vatican 
Observatory telescope.  The LBT (Large Binocular Telescope) may also be 
getting used, though it is probably in shakedown mode since it is just being 
finished.  Most telescopes in southern Arizona close down in July and August 
due to the monsoons - it's also a good time to catch up on any maintenance 
issues and mirrors tend to get removed and cleaned or re-aluminized at that 
time.  We often observe with Spacewatch through the monsoons, but our 
produtivity is pretty bad with the short nights and poor weather.  It's a 
good time to be on the top of a mountain watching the lightning storms nearby 
- though prudence causes one to retreat into the safty of a building during a 
more local storm!

Jim.

On Fri, 17 Jun 2005, CAMERON BRONIARCZYK wrote:

> Off topic reply
>
> Mary and I went camping last weekend and left at night, and we saw two bright 
> green meteorites. On one of them I could see what looked like a smoke trail 
> (or maybe an impression burned into my eyes). The were very cool. And they 
> did look "close" and they looked like they were "low".
>
> Oh yeah, we had our GPS's, so technically were were geocaching, so 
> technically this is on topic since  I am just reporting what we saw while 
> geocaching. :)
>
> On a second topic, We camped near Mt Graham, and we were wondering if the 
> telescopes are actually being used. There is word on the street that they are 
> not used, because of heat waves or something. I just figured you may know 
> (Jim Scotti that is)
>
> Thanks,
> Cameron

Jim Scotti
Lunar & Planetary Laboratory
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721 USA                 http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/
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