(meteorobs) Telescopic meteors

[pzeller1966]

  I want to thank everyone who replied to my beginner's questions. Some of
the advice has been discouraging and some has been inspiring but all of the
replies have been informative. I guess what I mean by this is, it's sort of
exciting to me knowing that so few amateur astronomers are involved with
regular binocular / telescopic meteor viewing, but at the same time I
realize that one observer can only contribute so much and it really takes a
cooperative effort to glean any valuable data from this type of observing.
I still may give it a try, knowing in advance that it takes patience and it
will take some time to gain experience.

  Malcolm, the field of view for my 16x50 set is about 3.5 degrees and I've
found the limiting magnitude to be 10.0 at my home location (there's a lot
of light pollution to my north and west). I have an old neglected pair of
7x50 binoculars that give me a FOV of about 7 degrees and a limiting
magnitude of about 8.5 magnitude, but the star images through them aren't
great. They might be in need of alignment. The 10" f/4 that I've been using
for variable star work has a low power eyepiece that gives me a 1.3 degree
FOV and can easily reach 12th magnitude though I've seen as faint as 14.1
on very clear nights using higher powers.

  I have been carefully reading the IMO literature on telescopic meteor
observing and also I have been looking over the forms and charts that are
included there. I might try a trial run soon.

  Thank you again and I welcome any more advice and instruction from more
experienced observers.

  Paul Zeller
  SE Indianapolis, IN, USA
This will be brief, as this is the fourth attempt to reply (flaky
firewall).

> I was wondering if anyone on this list does a regular program of
> observing meteors with binoculars or an RFT.

I used to avidly, but trying to get others interested was always
difficult.  IIRC The last regular group was in Poland, and I think
that was concentrated on summer camps, rather than all-year observing as
some of us did.

> I've been reading through some of the information online about it and
> it sounds very interesting.

Hurrah!  Me too.  It does require more patience and fortitude than
normal visual observing.  Most of the meteors will appear faint and thus
it's not suited to sites with light pollution.  Seeing a bright one,
particularly and enduring train is most rewarding.

It does take practice and time to attune to speed of the meteors.
Critical is finding an observing setup where you can be comfortable
observing a field for 20 to 30 minutes.  Distractions, say from a stiff
neck, makes the meteor rate plummet.  I suspect many a keen observer was
soon put off by this; I know I was until I had workable arrangement
that served me well for 15 years.  That was a 5-inch f/5 refractor,
comet seeker with a diagonal, and an adjustable height seat.  Even then
sometimes the cold would get to me, being more exposed to wind than
lying back for visual observing.

To some extent its goals of accurate path determination and radiant
studies has been superseded by video.  However, most video systems have
limiting magnitudes around +3, so only capture bright visual meteors.
Observing a fainter population gives insight into stream evolution, say
from the time of maximum as a function of particle mass.  Given a
dedicated team of observers over say a decade a lot of science is
possible from telescopic observations (as expounded in my articles), I
just cannot see that happening.  It needs a far better salesman than I.
In the age of video games, the action is too slow. You need the numbers
to obtain meaningful statistics.

For such reasons I've felt for some years than video with image
intensifiers was the way to go to address the science telescopic
observing could probe.  They complement the data captured by Mintron and
Watec cameras widely used in the IMO Video team.  You only have to go
out in the cold for a short while, and watch the meteors the next day.
The software can determine the path, no need to measure plots and feed
into astrometric software.

That said, if you want to give telescopic observing a try drop me a
line.  I can attempt to answer questions you may have on telescopic
observing and provide charts (although I don't have all sets with me in
Hawaii where I'm working).

> I own several pairs of binoculars and a 10" f/4 scope.

I have observed the Orionids with a 30cm f/5 Newtonian, but keeping the
eyepiece accessible was a problem.

> My favorite binocs are 16x50 but from what I've read these might not
> have the best magnification to aperture ratio for doing this kind of
> research.

Something more like 8x50, or 11x80 would be better. A higher
magnification can help if skies are not dark.  I found 7x50s
too bright in the UK summer skies.  What's the field of view
of the 16x50?

Malcolm Currie
--
Scanned by iCritical.
_______________________________________________
meteorobs mailing list
meteorobs at meteorobs.org
http://lists.meteorobs.org/mailman/listinfo/meteorobs
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.meteorobs.org/pipermail/meteorobs/attachments/20131202/83b9f259/attachment.html