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(meteorobs) Minor showers (was Re: Early Perseids/Eta Perseids)
>Although I am glad the NAMN is encouraging people to observe the major
radiants
>and has apparently inspired a lot of people to watch the skies, I would really
>like to see some additional encouragement to watch for minor radiants.
Gary, we are certainly in agreement here, but I caution new observers
against getting the impression that discovering new radiants is an everyday
thing. Usually, many hours under the stars are needed, and George and Bob
are to be commended for the Teff they put in each year as they are two of
the most active observers worldwide.
The NAMN was founded with a goal of recruiting new observers into the ranks
of meteor observing. Therefore, we chose the 'major' showers as a focus for
these new observers as they are easier to observe and provide more activity
to keep it interesting. After learning the basics while performing visual
counts of these showers, the natural progression would be to plotting, which
would then lead to the skills needed for minor shower studies. Hopefully, at
this point an observer would also join a more formal group in addition to
NAMN, such as ALPO and IMO, where they could continue this program.
So although we do encourage 'major' shower observations, both private e-mail
and this mailing list are used to encourage observing of other showers. I
would expect this area of our program to expand in the future as more people
get involved.
Mark Davis