(meteorobs) NASA Meteor Observing App

Chris Peterson clp at alumni.caltech.edu
Fri Dec 30 14:05:03 EST 2011


The difference is that all the earlier efforts were directed towards 
dedicated meteor observers- people who would go out of their way to make 
or buy a specialized tool (and yes, I do think some of those electronic 
efforts were better than tape recorders).

This effort takes advantage of a tool that most people already own, and 
typically have with them. Consequently, it has the potential to generate 
a LOT more data. Certainly, there are questions regarding the quality of 
that data, but it's clear this is something that the developers have 
considered. This is obviously a work in progress- but something of 
potential value.

And even for experienced observers, a recording system like this strikes 
me as much more convenient then something involving tape recorders and 
time codes. It could draw in more visual observers- people like me, who 
while interested to an extent, would never bother to set up something 
with a recorder and shortwave time source. (Of course, an Android 
version will have to show up, first...)

Chris

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

On 12/30/2011 11:31 AM, dfischer at astro.uni-bonn.de wrote:

>
> There have been several(!) attempts to popularize such approaches in
> earlier 'eras' of electronics, from home-made contraptions with buttons to
> press for each meteor to software running on laptops where one hits some
> keys blindly to register a meteor (saw one of the latter installations in
> action during the AUR campaign in the U.S. in 2007) - has anything useful
> ever come out of this? And why would things now be better?
>
> Back then, these systems were tried out mainly by experienced observers,
> now most everyone could happily fill up the database with noise. An app
> for blind use would still be a major improvement over campaigns where
> people are asked to compose a tweet for every meteor they saw, but how
> would one decide which data to keep and which to discard? I've been hoping
> for a near-real-time visual-ZHR-generating system for years, but is this
> the solution?
>
> Dan



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