Meteor north bound

[slotdrag]

On 12-02-05 about 10:00 pm central time i saw a bright meteor. And instead of gonig east to west it went from zenith to north. Is this uncommon?

[slotdrag]

Sorry i put this in the wrong area.

[01101001]

On 12-02-05 about 10:00 pm central time i saw a bright meteor. And instead of gonig east to west it went from zenith to north. Is this uncommon?

I wouldn't say it's uncommon. It just depends on how the sphere of Earth's atmosphere runs into the meteroid, and where you are standing when it does.

For instance, meteor showers will be seen to come from a point source, the radiant, and travel in all directions, like in this diagram of the Perseid shower:

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/images/perseids/skymap_med.gif (http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/19jul_perseids.htm) (from NASA: Summer Meteor Shower (http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/19jul_perseids.htm))

[aurora]

Even during meteor showers, there are sometimes "erratics".

These meteors appear to come pretty much from random directions.

There are some general differences in speed based on whether the meteor is coming from in front or from behind the Earth as the Earth orbits the Sun.

The way you can tell an erratic from a meteor shower is the direction it appears to go. If you can trace the track of the meteor back to the radiant as described in the previous message, then the meteor probably belongs to the shower. Otherwise it is an erratic.

[01101001]

Just in case: I didn't mean to imply that the meteor is question was actually part of a shower. I only used a meteor shower, and its lovely illustration, to show that meteors can move across the sky in all directions, not just east-west.

If you face a shower's radiant, you will see its individual meteors travel up, down left, and right, and everything in between.

It's not unusual for a meteor to become visible somewhere near the zenith and subsequently head northward.