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Field of View
At 03:36 PM 5/7/96 -0400, you wrote:
>What exactly is one's field of view?
>I find myself asking this whenever I have the urge to shield the moon's light
>from entering my eye directly - The moon is far removed from the center of my
>FOV, but still impinges it. So I try to preserve a little more acuity (and
have
>a nicer view) by shielding the direct lunar light out of my eyes.
>
>At the same time, if a bolide just happened to occur behind my upraised hand,
>that would affect my count! What do you consider to be a more valid approach?
I would like to add that if you're talking about shielding the moon with
your hand, and thus shielding a portion of sky, that estimated portion of
the sky should be considered "obscured" or more to the point, as part of
your calculation of 'F' for your observing period. It covers up a part of
the sky just as a tree of roof top would.
Maybe knowing what "one's field of view" as related to the appearance of
meteors should be considered instead of what the "total" field of view is.
For instance, what is the chance of observing a 5th magnitude meteor at
nearly the edge of your FOV vs. only 10 degrees form the center of you FOV.
Bob Lunsford, the ALPO Meteors Section Recorder is currently investigating
that and may be able to shed some more light on it.
mark
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