(meteorobs) Why don't more amateurs get it? (Meteors, that is.)

[Arlene Carol]

Hi Lew, et al...

Well, look at it this way, in terms of today's world...
besides the satisfaction we get from doing this activity,
what do we have to 'show' for it? there's no 'material'
evidence usually, we have no 'proof' of what we think we
saw was actually there, on top of it all, it's not sustainable. sure,
it seems to me that with each passing year, you scientists
(amateur or professional) are learning to plot the annual
meteor showers but that's not enough to 'hook' the
un-enlightened.  you can't 'hold it' nor can you 'see it again'...
you can't name it after yourself or anyone else because
most of what we meteorholics observe is nothing more than
a flash in a pan... even if we're with a group of observers,
by the time we say 'oh look at that one'...it's gone...how
frustrating for the 'un-hooked'...

i remember my very first Leonid meteor shower...well, i sort
of remember it. in was in 1978, i believe...i was in college,
single-handedly raising two kids and we were living in a 'summer'
rental on Long Beach Island, NJ...off-season rates are dirt cheap
and i figured it would get me through to the end of spring semester
the next year. my kids, jesse the lab, and i went outside around
11pm..laid down on the sand dunes, out of the wind, bundled with
blankets and waited. and waited. and waited...

nothing...absolutely nothing whizzed by...and after a teeth-chattering
45 minutes, we packed up and went in the house, it was, afterall,
a school night.

twenty years later, thanks to the Internet, i learned of the upcoming
Leonid shower and drove seven hours from Istanbul where i was
teaching to this area where i eventually settled three years later.
it was a meteor shower to remember. i was sorry that my kids
weren't here with me for that one...they would have been hooked
for life as well.

the 'pay-off' isn't something you can take to the bank, but i'm not
a materialist anyway...my memories are worth so much more than
cash in the bank.

I don't know how you go about stimulating life-time interest in meteors
without being able to DEMONSTRATE the excitement of seeing them
for yourself. hopefully, as meteor showers become more and more
predictable (and i hope that this predictability doesn't spoil it for those
of us doing this only for the love of it and not the science) we can take
our young kids outside for an adventure to explore the night skies
for themselves...what a great educational experience.

just some random thoughts this very early September morning
on my side of the pond.

the children are the future of this science too...but only if we lead
the way.


clear skies and pleasant temperatures.

arlene
south of troy