(meteorobs) A Visual Observing Question

Jay Salsburg jsalsburg at bellsouth.net
Sun Dec 29 14:12:32 EST 2013


Ask yourself (a generalization) if what you are doing is “Science.” The
questions you must ask yourself to do “Science” applies to any activity
engaged in Design, discovering Concepts, or uncovering Principles…

-------------------------

First we Guess; then…

We Compute the Consequences of the Guess to see what it would imply; then…

We Compare the Computation results to Nature, or Compare to Experiment, or
Compare to Experience… of direct observation; to see if it works.



If it Disagrees with Experiment, it is Wrong; this simple Statement is the
“Key to Science;” it does not matter how beautiful the Computation, or Who
expressed it, it is Wrong.



So the simple concept sequence is…

Guess → Compute Consequences → Compare to Nature, Experiment, and
Experience.



If your scientific activity (experiment) is solely engaged in visual
interpretation not using reliably-reproducible calibrated instrumentation
applying widely accepted computation, your scientific engagement has not
moved beyond the “Guess” stage with no chance of reaching a viable
conclusion. Viable Conclusions are the product of Scientific Inquiry.



Instrumentation is any mechanism that pushes a needle, moves or plots a
scale, or reacts indicating a force or forces.



http://www.salsburg.com/key/key.html

http://www.salsburg.com/design_science/design_science.html



Design Science…
Design Science is a problem solving approach which entails a rigorous,
systematic study of the deliberate ordering of the components in our
Universe.



From: meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org
[mailto:meteorobs-bounces at meteorobs.org] On Behalf Of pzeller1966
Sent: Friday, December 27, 2013 7:03 PM
To: Meteor science and meteor observing
Subject: (meteorobs) A Visual Observing Question



  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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