(meteorobs) Active radiant in Aquilae in July, 14/15 night?

[meteoreye at comcast.net]

This is true Karl. One must consider the experience of the observer in interpreting activity reports.

Many people who rarely look at the sky don't know that meteors occur all the time. I ran into that just yesterday on a space related bulettin board.

New and irregular observers may not be aware that there is sporadic activity, and that more than one shower may be active on any given night.

And Murphy's law of fireballs states that an experienced meteor observer will almost never see a fireball; they are witnessed by people who rarely see the sky! :) So even more care must be used in digesting reports. Fireball cameras are a big help in that regard.

Even experienced observers have differing skill sets. Some know the sky better than others.
Some know meteor showers better than others. Some see any meteor in Perseus as Perseids, while the radiant is in Andromeda in early July. Some see all meteors as fast. It takes some experience to gain that skill. Which of course, you only get by observing!

I feel my job as an experienced observer is to try and share what I've learned over the years to help everone else. It's one reason I'm so pleased to write the NAMN notes, which is designed for the novice as well as hopefully filled with tools for the more experienced.

Hopefully, I help accomplish that. If I can be of any help with your efforts with REFORME, let me know.

Wayne



-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: Karl Antier <ka.antier at wanadoo.fr> 

> Hi all, again, 
> 
> Thank you Wayne for your answer. 
> The issue is, that it's sometimes hard to know, when an observer 
> reports 'unusual' activity, if : 
> - it's not just usual raise of SPO activity, not really linked 
> to a stream, 
> - it's just due to someone who do not often observe meteors, and 
> realize suddenly that there can be plenty of them, 
> - it's not just a bright meteor that make him think activity has 
> raised a lot, 
> - it's really outburst of a meteor shower (known, or not). 
> By the way, a very bright fireball was observed and filmed two nights 
> ago (Mv < -12) : the video can be seen at the adress 
> http://france.allsky.camera.free.fr/observation.html 
> The reports will soon be online on our REFORME (French Meteor Observing 
> network) : http://www.imcce.fr/hosted_sites/reforme/ 
> 
> Clear skies ! 
> Karl 
> 
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