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Re: (meteorobs) plot describe count
>Whether or not IMO, NAMN (or I for that matter) consider it useful to
>simply "count" the number of meteors seen, there are a large number of
>people in the world - some of them maybe not even amateur astronomers - who
>regularly do just that: they lay out under the sky for the Perseid maximum
>and "count" the number of meteors they see for the night or whatever
>period. Many amateurs also keep a "count" of the meteors they see in a
>night of telescope observing. Clearly some confusion could result for
>people not intimate with the IMO and its terminology.
This is definitely true, as the number of "Reader Reports" that are sent in
to the two major U.S. astronomy magazines will attest. But I still feel
'Counts' or 'Counting' should be the preferred term. Perhaps those of us who
write articles and/or submit reports to the magazines should insure this
terminology is used in our writings? This way the terms we are discussing
will come into general useage by the average amateur astronomer.
>What to do: cater to the novice, or the more advanced observer?
>Terrible problem! :>
This is a difficult situation, but when any of us have the opportunity, we
should 'educate' the novice, sorta like the great strides that amateurs are
doing recently about light-pollution....
Mark Davis