(meteorobs) Quads and Questions

[Kim Youmans]

 I experience the same dissociation from time to time -- "um, er, didn't I 
just see a meteor
a couple minutes ago...?"   Most of my hours are logged on "slow" non-shower 
nights and
as Rich noted, it's impossible to keep the mind focused for two straight 
hours or longer when there is a decided lack of stimuli
in one's environment!  Let's not forget the mind has a tendency to ignore 
"noise,"
be it odor, sound, visual, etc.  Over time, after hundreds of hours of 
observing,
a Jungian might be willing to bet that our unconscious is just ignoring 
something
it's quite accustomed to.
   Or we could just be getting old.  ;)

>>>I wonder what our peers out there do to keep on the ball?

Calisthenics at 4:00 AM in the midst of a meteor session is NOT my idea
of staying alert but *is* employed by certain Slovenians who
generally have great success with rates.  I'll turn off the radio
and let the forest sounds (and my imagination) return me to
reality -- I'm basically just unarmed bear-bait...

Kim Youmans

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Taibi" <rjtaibi at hotmail.com>
To: <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2006 12:33 PM
Subject: RE: (meteorobs) Quads and Questions


> Brother McCurdy,
>
> I read your note with empathy and sympathy: I too do some of the delayed 
> reaction responding you describe.  I'm about to be 60 (ouch!) but I'm not 
> sure the delay is age or visual acuity-related.  I think dissociation is a 
> more likely explanation for our problem.  Dissociation is what occurs in a 
> boring class when your mind wanders, and like it does during a 
> low-meteor-number session.  The problem is worse with bright moonlight, 
> there's even less to keep your attention so your attention "wanders."  The 
> blank or bland sky is a great "blank screen" to hypnotize yourself with. 
> Hypnosis is a focussed form of dissociation.  The good news is that we can 
> and DO "snap ourselves out of it."  So, for awhile again, until we get 
> bored, we can focus with razor-sharp attention.  I think it might help to 
> bring some mild distraction on anticipated low meteor-frequency nights, 
> like a radio, to keep sharper.  Of course too, getting up and walking 
> around occasionally can help.
>
> I wonder what our peers out there do to keep on the ball?
>
> Best wishes, Rich
>
>>From: bmccurdy at telusplanet.net
>>Reply-To: Global Meteor Observing Forum <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
>>To: Global Meteor Observing Forum <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
>>Subject: (meteorobs) Quads and Questions
>>Date: Wed,  4 Jan 2006 03:14:43 -0800
>>
>>
>>    My luck continues to run very cold. I don't have to tell the denizens 
>> of
>>this fine list about the havoc wreaked by moonlight in 2005, as the 
>>Orionids,
>>Leonids and Geminids all featured a very fat, very high Moon. But beyond 
>>that
>>I had very poor luck with observing conditions:  the Perseids spoiled by 
>>cloud
>>within an hour; the Draconids wiped out; the others yielding low,
>>scientfically worthless counts under various thicknesses of cloud, haze, 
>>and
>>cirrus, all illumintaed by brilliant moonlight. I'm not sure I logged a
>>hundred meteors in 2005, whereas I easily had ten times that in 2004 in a
>>similar number of sessions.
>>
>>    With the turn of the calendar I hoped my luck would change. Luna would 
>> not
>>be a factor for the 2006 Quadrantids and I was raring to go. With the peak
>>scheduled to occur at 11:20 MST on the 3rd, I figured that if I waited 
>>into
>>the wee hours I would at least be climbing onto one of the shower's narrow
>>shoulders as the radiant climbed the sky. So I waited during a beautifully
>>clear evening, and finally headed out after 1 a.m. with my son Kevin. By 
>>the
>>time we finished the half-hour drive to the site southwest of Edmonton, 
>>the
>>cirrus was already building ominously in the west and passing overhead in
>>layers ranging from almost transparent to annoying. There were also 
>>patches of
>>ice fog in the chilly (minus 11 C.) conditions. We could see the brighter
>>stars in most directions, but the limiting magnitude could be 5 here and 3
>>there and something different in both places a minute from now. So
>>unfortunately, our counts were very low, and again useless.
>>
>>    I did have the pleasure of spotting my very first Eclipticid, within a
>>minute of starting my first bin at 09:00 UT. Am I the first to report one? 
>>:)
>>But beyond that, pickings were very slim indeed, three Quadrantids (mags 
>>3, 1,
>>and -2) and two sporadics in 90 minutes of Tiff (INeffective observing 
>>time).
>>By son was lucky enough to spot an orange fireball with two explosion 
>>points
>>soaring parallel to the SW horizon, in the treetops about ten degrees up,
>>which was accompanied by an exactly simultaneous outburst from our car 
>>radio.
>>Otherwise his counts were as desultory as mine. The radio burst into song 
>>once
>>a minute or so to confirm there was something happening up there, visual
>>evidence to the contrary.
>>    ***
>>
>>    Now the question, which concerns perception and which I am almost 
>> reluctant
>>to bring up. My visual acuity has really gone south in the last few years 
>>(I'm
>>50), to the point where I can't read anything but signs and headlines 
>>without
>>optical aid; I'm seriously handicapped at the Observatory when it comes to
>>focussing telescopes for the public. But I'm also beginning to doubt my 
>>mental
>>focus as well. In many of my recent meteor observing sessions, especially 
>>the
>>slow ones with low counts (which is to say, most of them) I have 
>>registered a
>>few faint meteors in the "past tense". It's like they're so natural, I 
>>simply
>>don't react to them; then a couple seconds later I (might) go "hey wait a
>>minute ..." By then I'm seriously doubting whether I saw a faint meteor or
>>simply an internal reflection of the death of another faint neuron!
>>
>>    Often the delayed-perception memory is linear, and frequently enough 
>> it
>>points back to that night's radiant. In last night's case, it was a 
>>sporadic
>>coming in towards the Twins; after a couple seconds I simply said to Kevin 
>>"I
>>think I'm seeing things", but he surprised me by describing it! Even 
>>though he
>>too hadn't reacted to it at the time. Which was reassuring to some extent, 
>>but
>>I'm sure I miss or discount more of these than I convince myself to count, 
>>and
>>I'm seriously beginning to wonder if I need to recalibrate my personal
>>baseline.
>>
>>    I wonder if others on this list have experience with what I call "deja 
>> vu
>>observing", and how do/can you deal with it? Can I simply blame it on
>>deteriorating vision, or is the only cure a full frontal lobotomy?
>>    ***
>>
>>    24 hours later, after an evening filled with determinedly clear skies 
>> and
>>other commitments, I went out on to my back deck much later tonight (2:15
>>local time on the 4th) hoping to catch the receding shoulder of the Quads. 
>>The
>>clouds returned within 15 minutes -- did I mention my luck has been 
>>terrible? -
>>- but I did catch one beautiful zeroeth mag Quad streaking above the 
>>Little
>>Dipper. A small but much-appreciated reward of my fourth Quad for two
>>evenings' aborted efforts.
>>
>>    Bruce
>>    *****
>>
>>
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