(meteorobs) Origin of ZHR: Getting closer?

[Richard Taibi]

Gregg,   Thanks for your message.  I appreciate your willingness to chase 
publications in the bibliographic wilderness!  But, I doubt that the 
publication you mention is the same as the one needed.  For instance, the 
observing groups are different, Sonnenberg was Hoffmeister's observatory and 
your publication seems to reference a Bonn observation group.  Also, the 
Ahnert-Rohlfs article has a Berlin publisher and the one you mention has a 
Bonn publisher.

But, perhaps a reference librarian at the U of Washington can help you find 
the article in another library.  I will also try librarians in the 
Washington, DC area for similar help.

Incidentally, do you know about the marvelous on-line reference gold mine 
that is the Smithsonian-NASA Astrophysical Database Service (ADS)?  Many 
journals, observatory publications and other references may be read on-line. 
  Incredible.  BTW Harvard U seems to host this website.

Best wishes,  Rich


>From: "Gregory Lobdell" <gmlobdell at seanet.com>
>Reply-To: Global Meteor Observing Forum <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
>To: Global Meteor Observing Forum <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
>Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Origin of ZHR: Getting closer?
>Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2007 23:45:28 -0700
>
>Richard,
>
>You've done some amazing detective work.  Congratulations.
>
>Is this the publication you're referencing in item 2:
>
>Veröffentlichungen
>by Astronomische Institute Bonn.;  Universitäts-Sternwarte zu Bonn.
>Language: German  Type:  Serial Publication : Periodical
>Publisher: Bonn : Ferd. Dümmlers Verlag,
>OCLC: 2584174
>
>For more information see: http://uwashington.worldcat.org/oclc/2584174
>
>It's not clear if my local university, University of Washington, Seattle, 
>WA, has volume 2 of this
>publication, but they may, or they may be able to help locate it.   Once we 
>get a copy, then it can be
>sent to the appropriate German reader.
>
>Gregg
>
>On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 20:37:17 -0400, Richard Taibi wrote
> > I want to acknowledge everyone's contributions to this topic.  They
> > have been helpful!
> >
> > In particular, I received suggestions from Ed Cannon and Alastair
> > McBeath, VP of the IMO, that seem to point to the possibility that
> > 1951 or 1952 was when "zhr" was conceived and employed in
> > publications reducing visual meteor rates.  I was referred to two
> > astronomers who, if they themselves did not originate the concept,
> > they must surely have been in association with other astronomers who
> > developed it.
> >
> > 1) Zdenek Ceplecha published "Statistical Observations of Meteors
> > 1951," in 1952.  In this article, he improved on an hourly rate
> > computation used by Vladimir Guth (1905-1980), in 1941, by adding
> > another term for "transferring the (meteor) frequencies to the
> > position of the radiant in zenith."
> >
> > 2) Eva Ahnert-Rohlfs (born Rohlfs, 1912-1954), an associate of Cuno
> > Hoffmeister, published a study in 1952 too.  Ed Cannon cited a
> > secondary source that reported Dr. Ahnert-Rohlfs published a study
> > about the Perseids in which "hourly rates were corrected to a
> > zenithal value..."  I do not have access to the original article in
> > Veroffentlichungen der Sternwarte in Sonnenberg, Akademie Verlag
> > Berlin, volume 2, part 2, pp. 5-38.  Another source gives 1956 as
> > the publication date of this article.  I must confess that even if
> > the article were available to me, I do not read German.  Perhaps one
> > of our colleagues who does read German could help us out?
> >
> > In any case the term "zhr" became more widely used in 1954 articles,
> > and as we have seen, in Sidgwick's 1955 tome.
> >
> > So, this interim report points to 1951 as the latest date when the
> > concept of zenithal hourly rate was developed.  Note that Ceplecha's
> > 1952 article was submitted for publication in 1951.  It also seems
> > that the concept was in the meteoric "zeitgeist" in Germany and
> > Czechoslovakia at that time.
> >
> > Does anyone have information about earlier uses of the concept?
> > Perhaps some German-reading meteor student could pursue the Ahnert-
> > Rohlfs article and determine who she references, if anyone.
> >
> > Best wishes,
> >
> > Richard Taibi
> > Maryland, USA
> >
> > ---
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