(meteorobs) Camera sky coverage math question

[Chris Peterson]

Hi Tom-

Are you just asking for the ratio of the Earth's surface area to your 
observation area? That would be 5e8 km^2 / 1e6 km^2, meaning your camera 
covers about 0.2% of the total sky.

Of course, this is really not the most accurate way of looking at things, 
since you only record a very small percentage of the total meteors at the 
edges of your field. If you are interested in doing any serious statistical 
analysis, you'll want to apply some sort of weighting function to 
compensate.

Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Thomas Ashcraft" <ashcraft at heliotown.com>
To: "Global Meteor Observing Forum" <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Monday, April 04, 2011 8:41 AM
Subject: (meteorobs) Camera sky coverage math question


>I have a math question.
>
> My all-sky camera can see fireballs in the sky for approximately 350
> miles/ 563 km in all directions.  I am wondering what percentage of the
> Earth's sky this camera can see?
>
> Thanks for your math help in advance.
>
> Thomas  /  New Mexico