(meteorobs) Aging bodies and deteriorating skies

[Richard Taibi]

This is meant as a follow-up and addition to what earlier writer-observers have contributed on the 'aging eyes' topic.  Marco and Koen mentioned greater fatigue and longer recuperation time as one gets older.  That is certainly true for me too.  A three hour observation is a maximum effort for me now and I feel the effects on energy and efficiency for two days afterwards.  If I make two to three hour observations two nights in a row, I'm 'disabled' for most of the remaining week!  When I was 37, and just beginning to watch meteors, I could travel 30 km, observe and return home and still be able to function at work later in the day.  It would be a mistake for me to try it now at age 65.
 
But it seems to me getting older, with its inherent physical decline, is only one aspect of what deteriorates as one ages.  More specific to watching meteors is the aging of the entire eye/retina/cerebral cortex involved in vision and interpretation of the percept.  As observers we are accustomed to think of eye and sky, but actually meteor watching is more a matter of sky quality and brain physiology.  What Marco said about improvement in perception as a result of experience makes sense, but probably only a long term study of the same individuals over years would  answer the question of the extent to which observational experience compensates for the aging vision system.
 
There is another issue too for veteran observers like me who observe from the same geographical area over the years: the sky in southern Maryland has become increasingly light-polluted between 1983 and 2011.  This confounding variable of deteriorating skies would also have to be taken into account in a long-term study of individuals' visual perceptiveness. Rich

 		 	   		  
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