Meteor in Andromeda

[Stub Mandrel]

I saw a large meteor last night, falling down from Pegasus that ended in big white drop. Just checking my subs, and I spotted this one in Andromeda. Obviously this suffers from the combination of moonlight and being a single sub...

[jambouk]

Where are you based? When was it and at what time; i can have a look on my meteor detection camera and see if I picked it up. If imaged with a dslr just check the time in the camera compared to the real time (GMT or BST). If it has been detected the software can work out if it belongs to an annual meteor shower group or whether it is a sporadic.

James

[Stub Mandrel]

Hello James,

I'm just south of Burton upon Trent. The timestamp on the photo is 23:17 BST and the Camera is within a minute of the computer clock.

The big meteor was later, but as I didn't get a picture I'm not sure exactly when, I would say it was about south west and appeared to come vertically down. It was very bright - brighter than most fireworks - and pure white.

[laudropb]

Nice capture. Thanks for posting.

[jambouk]

I'm on a train back from the BAA meeting in London (joint comet and meteor workshop), but will have a look through my captures from last night (I'm assuming it was last night). How much later was the brighter one? I suspect if it was more west than 180 degrees azimuth from Button then I won't have captured it.

James

[Stub Mandrel]

Sorry James, I would guess it was between 12 and 1.

[jambouk]

No, I didn't capture your Andromeda meteor, or the later brighter one. Sorry, though it was reasonably busy for meteors that night.

[Stub Mandrel]

Thanks for trying :-)

[JeremyS]

Like James, I also run sensitive video cameras all night long with the aim of capturing meteors. Of the few dozen I caught that night, none seem to correspond to the one you mention near M31.

Go well!
Jeremy

[Stub Mandrel]

Do you think it could be a tumbling satellite? I could convince myself there's a faint line right across the frame.

The one I saw happen was definitely a meteor.

[JeremyS]

Yes, it could well be a satellite. The brightening and fading along the path looks pretty even. Meteors usually don't give such a symmetrical light profile.

The meteor camera systems that James and I use are designed to disregard satellites since satellites generally progress much more slowly  across the sky than meteors do, so they can tell tem apart. At least in theory. So the software measures that rate and if it's too slow it thinks: ah! that's a satellite and disregards it. That way we hope to get mainly recordings of meteors, but I have to say the discrimination isn't completely reliable so we generally get a few satellites as well as the meteors we want!

Go well!

Jeremy