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Re: Estimating Velocities
> I used the 1-5 scale until the 94 Aurigid outburst. This shower produces
> meteors with a velocity of 66 km/sec. The radiant was low when the
> outburst began. The meteors I was seeing were very slow lasting up
> to 2 seconds. Using the 1-5 scale I would have given these meteors
> a 1. How can you give a meteor with a velocity of 66 km/sec a 1?
Oh, it seems you (instinctively) misinterpreted the speed scale as the inverse
of the duration. This is no rare effect; I know this from other observers. Long
meteors are estimated slow, very short ones always get a 5. I cannot but
encourage you to continue with the length/duration method. In my case I was not
happy with length/duration as I tended to overestimate the path length of
meteors on the chart some years ago. I have never tried it again---I suppose I
have improved my plots due to the better charts with larger scale.
I had about the same impression during tbe Leonid maximum last year when the
radiant rised. I wondered how those "slow" (long) meteors can be Leonids...
Rainer