Anomalous Meteor

Wavering meteors
These are perhaps real (but under debate). I am not talking about curved meteors or those completely changing directions. Curved meteors are a different story. A wavering meteor will still follow a straight trajectory, but will appear to zigzag or ripple *slightly* as it travels. The problem with this is that a meteoroid cannot survive the slightest change in directions, due to the extreme velocity it travels as it burns in the atmosphere. For some unexplained reason, I have observed this effect subtly on a small number of meteors, but only one was very obvious. It is still fresh in my mind. In July 1994, while observing in the late evening from my backyard, a magnitude -2 slow speed sporadic in the northeast caught my eye. It was a long persistent 30 degrees path, lasting a few seconds. I had time for a good long look at it, so optical illusion or atmospheric effect is out of question. The meteor traveled about parallel to the horizon, and "wavered" back and forth quite obviously at least 3 times before fading out. Could this effect be caused by the meteoroid spinning as it plunges into the atmosphere? I always believed this was the cause, but I have trouble understanding the exact process? Photographic evidence is available. A good example is a wavering Perseid shot in Capricornus on page 90 of the August 1997 Sky&Tel. It looks quite convincing to me. The caption beside the photo claims that at least 1 out of every 200 meteors follow a slightly wavering path. Wonder where that data came from? Has there ever been any research into this topic?

Curved meteors
I have noticed on several of my older reports going back years ago, I often mentioned as remarks that I have seen a curved meteor. Years later, there were seen less often, and now I never see this effect anymore. I believe somehow my eyes were tricked into seeing curved paths when I would turn my head quickly to see a meteor already moving...a well known optical illusion. Another factor are birds and insects. For instance, on August 4/5 1992, I observed an amazing "S" shaped path from a meteor of magnitude 3 that lasted at least a few seconds. It even originated from near the Perseids radiant. A number of nights later, I saw a similar meteor but soon realized to my disappointment that it was only a bird flying around, under lit from street lights. I still have my 1992 Perseids plotting chart with all meteors linear, except for that strange bird plot going all over the constellations. I might still see curved meteors on occasion, but never note them anymore as I know they are not real and immediately dismiss them.

Double meteors
These are quite rare and breathtaking. There is a difference between "double" meteors and simultaneous ones, often seen during major showers such as the Perseids or Leonids. The difference with double meteors is having at least two of them travelling very close together on similar paths, and both meteors with very similar magnitudes, trains, ect...
Only twice I observe these double meteors. One of the most visually breathtaking event of my years of meteor observing so far came on the evening of May 4 1991. At 22:45 EDT, the Eta Aquarids radiant still some 20 degrees below horizon. Suddenly at that time, I noticed two bright meteors appear at the same time low in the east. They were strikingly similar. Both brightened to yellow-white magnitude -3 or -4 as they travelled together quickly straight up to the zenith, separated by 5 degrees. They kept racing and I had to turn my head to keep following them! The first one extinguished after about 80 degrees. The second one went further going well over 100 degrees path. Both left brief but brightly glowing trains behind.

On August 20, 1988, evening 23:00 EDT, I observed another long path "double" meteor. This time, these were only magnitudes +3, but still impressive. Both meteors began instantaneously near Cygnus, separated by a few degrees only, and plunged together into the eastern horizon. They seemed to converge together as they got further away near the horizon. They quickly disappeared behind the neighbour's house. Their visible path went at least 80 degrees.

Earth grazers
These are actually quite common, especially during the peak of a major shower when the radiant is at or just below the horizon by a few degrees. During that time, meteors are usually more scarce but some spectacular long paths can appear. Some paths can travel more than half the length of the sky or perhaps more. A few more nice earthgrazers I have seen... On May 4/5 1992, shortly after midnight, a high velocity grazer of magnitude +2, possibly from the Eta Aquarids, shot over 100 degrees in the sky. While observing on October 4/5 of that same year, I got a medium speed +2 magnitude sporadic covering almost 130 degrees of sky, from Orion to the northern horizon! It just kept going and going! On April 19/20 1996, there was a very nice sporadic of +1 magnitude on a 90 degrees path. More recently last year, during the night of April 30/May 1st 1998, at 7:38 UT (3:38 EST) were 2 similar ETAs only 10 seconds apart. The first one, close to the zenith, split the sky with 60 degrees or more in no time. The second one followed in almost the same location and shot some 35 degrees.

Meteors "slowing down"
I suppose these are simply the effect of foreshortening from meteors close to a radiant, or from long meteors travelling further away, and appearing to slow done. Usually they also get fainter as they become more distant. One interesting and different one I saw deserves mention. It was during the Geminids on Dec 13/14 1988. I was observing around 21:30 local EST, when this bright meteor shot fairly fast from near Gemini and descended on a long path beyond Orion. Oddly, as it descended and slowed down toward the horizon, it actually got gradually brighter. This yellow-white "ball" seemed to come to a near stop, with a magnitude reaching -4 or more, then it suddenly blinked out. There were no hint of any train. It looked just like a Roman candle firework.

Electrophonic sounds
Only once. It was a July 1985 evening observation (boy, that was looong ago). After a quiet evening of watching for satellites and learning constellations, I was about to quit for the night, when suddenly it happened. A large fireball in the south, brighter than Venus was immediately accompanied by a loud, clear "whooossh". A sound much comparable to the propane burner of a hot air balloon. The fireball had a "thick" appearance. It was yellow-white and with a bright 20 second train following. It left no doubt in my young mind that the sound was associated with the meteor. Things were quiet around at the time, and there were no indications that something else would have produced the sound. The neighborhood where I observed at that time had several electrical lines on poles passing over my backyard. For that reason, I still don't rule out the possibility of a real electrophonic event.

"Skipping" meteors
As I observed the Ursids on December 22 1988, in the early evening after sunset, I saw what looked like a strange faint Ursid meteor appearing in and out quickly at least 5 times, much like a rock skipping on a pond. It left me wondering if it could be really a meteor. I then went to sleep, and woke up to observe the last hour of darkness before dawn. Despite observing through a bedroom window, with a full moon (!) and awful limiting magnitude, it appeared the Ursids were putting on a show. I was surprised by a few nice meteors. Perhaps the most interesting was another "skipping" meteor at 6:40 local EDT; this time a -2 magnitude yellow-white Ursid that flashed about 5 times. I suppose meteors don't really skip. This feature is probably caused by faint meteors suddenly flaring to visibility as they move.

Nebulous meteors
I sometimes see a meteor surrounded with a faint "halo", especially some bright ones. I believe most of the time, this is a result of atmospheric haze. Or perhaps a glare into my glasses. Ever since I began wearing contact lenses while observing, I noticed much less problems with reflections. I also find that everything looks sharper and more pinpoint with contact lenses compared to glasses, despite identical prescriptions with both.

Vivid colored meteors
I nearly always see color in meteors with magnitudes of +2 or brighter. I also consider white as a color. Magnitudes +3 are more rarely colored and for anything fainter, I barely, if ever see any color. Most of the time, the color observed is subtle, usually comparable to naked eye star color. More unusual, but not rare are the really vivid colored meteors. I seem to have observed the most vivid green meteors in December for some reason. During the Geminids peak night of 1988, I had 2 strongly colored green meteors of magnitude -3. Even the trains they left had a slight greenish tone. For the early morning hours of December 22 1988, I saw 2 Ursids of magnitudes -2 and -3, also with vivid green colors. Much more recently last year, I was heading out to Casselman to observe on Dec 12/13. It was shortly before local midnight and as I drove on, a Geminid fireball of magnitude -8 to -10 went by with a brilliant deep green color!