(meteorobs) Fwd: "Sky-Watcher Alert: Meteor Show Peaks

[Dale]

BRAVO, ray!!!
dale
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ray Jones 
  To: meteorobs at meteorobs.org 
  Sent: Sunday, August 01, 2004 5:33 PM
  Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Fwd: "Sky-Watcher Alert: Meteor Show Peaks



  Joe Rao (and Lew, of course),

  Thanks for the timely notification about the present and upcoming
  showers,
  and the articles written on them explaining them in layman's terms.

  I think this letter is really to Julie (or Julz?), who was talking about
  being
  overwhelmed by the volume and sometimes technical aspect of the postings
  here.

  I came to this forum several years ago, and felt the same way you did,
  especially
  about the observation reports and radio counts.  What, I thought, did
  they have
  to do with looking up at the sky, your breath caught in your throat,
  watching
  a cosmic visitor from a billion miles away play 'firefly' for you?  And,
  on top of
  that, there would be these periodic frenzies about meteor showers MONTHS
  before
  the event, with these guys who seemed WAY out of my league debating
  about optimal
  viewing times and trajectories and whatnot... it was very disconcerting
  and, indeed,
  not a little bit overwhelming at times.

  Then I started learning to tune out what didn't interest me, following
  what did, and
  eventually even posting a comment or two.  My big moment came in
  November, 2001.
  Shortly after 9/11, these guys were posting a gazillion messages an hour
  about the
  up-coming Leonids.  I realized this was going to be a really big show,
  and called
  a resort in Death Valley my wife had always wanted to visit.  Due to the
  fear of
  travel going on at the time we were able to get a spectacular discount
  for what was,
  at that time, a non-event weekend in November. A few weeks later the
  world picked
  up on the story, and I ended up having a room that couldn't be obtained
  at any price
  for a show that I may never see the like of again!  Since then, our
  friends will
  often ask me 'what's up in the sky this weekend?' since I am the local
  (ahem) expert
  now <grin>, and always seem to know about the good stuff before it
  happens.

  Just had a nice weekend with family visiting from Los Angeles.  They
  came up here
  to the country for a break, and I was able to get them up early one
  morning and watch
  the South Delta Aquarids a bit.  It was the high point of their trip,
  and I owe it
  to this list.  We didn't count them, or plot the origination points or
  anything.  We
  just got cricks in our necks and said "Oooh" and "Aaahhh" a lot.

  Sorry for such a long post.  Thanks for everything, guys.  I'll keep
  reading, and
  hope you do, too, Julie!  And thanks to Joe and Lew for bringing my
  attention to 
  these two articles, as well as to John Roach, who wrote the National
  Geographic
  feature, Peter Jenniskens (another frequent poster here) who provided
  the photo for
  that article, Robert Lunsford (that article from National Geographic
  News read a bit
  like some namedropper who'd been reading THIS list) and all the rest of
  you who keep
  posting here so I can impress my friends and family and bring a bit of
  heaven into
  our own lives.

  Here are the links to the two articles, Julie... check 'em out.

  Joe's CNN article: 
  http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/07/26/shower.meteor/


  John Roach's NatGeoNews piece:
  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0722_040727_shootingstar
  .html


  Thanks again everyone,
  RayJ




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