> J. R. Molloy <jr@shasta.com> Wrote:
>
> > Have any extropians heard a meteor?
>
> John Clark wrote: I've never heard one but I once saw a meteor in the daytime...
No way! Meteors are falling stars and even a child knows that
stars are only out at night.
Seriously, I dont see how a meteor could be heard, for they would
burn up high in the atmosphere. I suspect it is unusual that one would
come closer than 20 km from an observer, in which case the sound
would take a minute to arrive. The attention span of the modern
human is far shorter than that. What was I talking about? Oh yes,
meteors.
Nowthen, this can be tested. If a meteor is close enough to be
heard, then it would be close enough to have a large difference
in position as viewed by two observers separated by walkie talkie
distance. Have the two observers separate by a couple hundred
meters, set up cameras pointed vertically on a moonless night,
open the shutters for a couple minutes, or until a bright meteor
is visible. Develop the film, see if there is a large difference in
the path of the meteor with respect to the background stars.
With the two photos, one should be able to estimate the altitude
of the meteor as it flamed out.
Then compare with previous astrophotos to figure out which
star it was that fell. {8^D spike
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:23 MDT