(meteorobs) IMO fireball report form goes live

Robert Lunsford lunro.imo.usa at cox.net
Fri Feb 27 08:15:53 EST 2015


Tony and All,

Reducing the brightness scale is probably a good idea but I can tell you that after filing many thousands of reports in the last 10 years the brightness estimates will be one of the most inaccurate recollections listed by witnesses, no matter what magnitude scale is listed. We must remember that 99% of these reports are provided by novices who invariably overestimate the brightness of fireballs. I have seen this myself when I witnessed a meteor that barely qualified as a fireball at magnitude -5 yet someone 100 miles away listed the magnitude as -12. Even experienced observers have difficulty estimating magnitudes when a fireball exceeds magnitude -6. Luckily the magnitude is one of the less important factors of fireball reporting and we can live with a wide range of reports. Now if we could just get witnesses to be more accurate with the timing of their event as large events can have a spread of an hour or more making it that much more difficult to pinpoint the exact time of occurrence. 

Clear Skies!

Robert Lunsford


---- Tony Markham <tonymarkham832 at gmail.com> wrote: 
> I think that most observers would find the reporting system helpful.
> 
> My only concern would be with the screen for reporting the brightness of
> the fireball. This runs from "as bright as Venus" (mag -4) to "as bright as
> the Sun" (mag -28). This could give the impression that the "average"
> (middle of the range) fireball will be mag -16. Consequently, observers may
> be influenced to report too bright a magnitude. The actual magnitudes of
> most fireballs are squashed up towards the left end of the offered range.
> 
> This issue is seen in the reports sent to the AMS which uses a similar
> reporting system. Looking at their recent fireball reports, around a
> quarter were reported to be mag -20 or brighter and around half were
> reported to be brighter than the Full Moon. This is clearly unrealistic.
> 
> If, however, the offered range ran from "as bright as Venus"  to "brighter
> than the Full Moon"  (i.e. around mag -4 to mag -14), this would hopefully
> encourage observers to report more realistic magnitudes.
> 
> Best Wishes,
> Tony
> 
> On 26 February 2015 at 15:11, Megan Argo <megan.argo at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Dear all,
> >
> > After huge efforts on the part of Mike Hankey and Vincent Perlerin, the
> > IMO website now hosts a multi-lingual fireball report form at
> > http://fireballs.imo.net/   Assuming no specialist astronomical knowledge
> > or observing experience, this form easily guides the user through the
> > process of reporting a fireball sighting in detail.  The information
> > gathered from the submitted reports is collected into a public database
> > which can be searched for particular events:
> > http://fireballs.imo.net/members/imo_view/browse_events
> >
> > A team of volunteers has been hard at work translating the fireball form
> > into more than 25 languages, and the IMO now requests your help in
> > publicising it to local astronomical societies and groups in your region.
> > We all know that large fireball events often excite local media.  If such
> > an event happens in your region, you can help by publicising the form
> > widely to ensure reports are collected from as many eye-witnesses as
> > possible.
> >
> > If you would like to contribute a new translation in a language not
> > already covered, or spot a mistake in the text of the form in your native
> > language, please follow the instructions to translators at
> > http://fireballs.imo.net/members/imo/translators
> >
> > The IMO fireball report can be customized and branded for amateur
> > societies, observatories, institutions or other astronomy organizations who
> > receive fireball reports and enquiries from the public (see the Turkish
> > Uzaybimer version at http://fireballs.imo.net/?org=uzaybimer for
> > example).  For more details, and to set up an account for your
> > organization, please contact vperlerin at gmail.com
> >
> > If you would like to test the form without submitting a false event to the
> > database, please use the test version: http://dev.imo.amsmeteors.org/
> >
> > Clear skies,
> > Megan Argo
> > IMO Press Officer
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > meteorobs mailing list
> > meteorobs at meteorobs.org
> > http://lists.meteorobs.org/mailman/listinfo/meteorobs
> >
> >



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