(meteorobs) A Visual Observing Question

[meteors at comcast.net]

Your problem is common among meteor observers - very few are fortunate 
enough to have dark skies in their backyard. In the 1990's I was able to 
observe from my yard, but then a 24-hour golf driving range was built 
about 10 miles away, ending that arrangement! Most observers I know 
travel to dark sky location such as national or state parks, forests, or 
overlooks. Travel time is often up to several hours one-way.

Observing with skies under LM=5.0 is certainly possible, but as other 
have mentioned, your rates will suffer. In the past most groups 
preferred observations with LMs better than 5.0 to reduce the 
statistical errors in their calculations. NAMN is the only group that I 
can remember which routinely published these reports online. Nowadays I 
see meteor reports under full moon conditions.

My suggestion is to continue using your backyard to hone your skills, 
and continually be on the search for a nearby dark sky location. A good 
place to start is state and national parks.

I wish you luck!

Mark Davis, South Carolina, USA
meteors at comcast.net
namn at namnmeteors.org

North American Meteor Network (NAMN)
http://www.namnmeteors.org/

On 12/27/2013 8:02 PM, pzeller1966 wrote:
>    I have a question that I've been meaning to throw out to members of
> this mailing list. First, to give a little background, I've gotten more
> and more interested lately in making scientifically valuable visual
> observations of meteor showers; both major and minor showers. I've been
> reading about the methods used by the IMO for meteor counts and
> plotting. However, while reading through the material available online,
> I was a little disappointed to find out that visual observing is
> discouraged if the limiting magnitude of the sky is 5.0 or less. Years
> of amateur astronomy have taught me that my most transparent skies from
> my back yard let me see stars as low as 4.5 - 4.8 magnitude with the
> naked eye. I can very rarely see stars to 5.0 and my very best, darkest
> nights have let me see stars to 5.2 magnitude. However, nights like this
> are very rare! I've thought about trying to find a better observing site
> further from the city lights, but this doesn't help if the night has
> moonlight. I guess my question is this ... Can any useful visual
> observing be done on nights when the limiting visual magnitude is 4.0 -
> 4.5 or so? Useful enough to report to the IMO or other groups like NAMN?
> All replies are welcome.
>
>    Thanks and good observing to all of you.
>
>    Paul Z.
>    Indianapolis IN USA
>
>
>
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