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(meteorobs) BOUNCE FWD: Plotting in the cold




The following message got bounced by our finicky majordomo server: Enjoy!

Lew Gramer
owner-meteorobs@latradedot com


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To: meteorobs@latradedot com
From: pgural@trg1.saicdot com (Pete Gural)
Subject: Plotting in the cold
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 08:52:46 +0000

Lew;

Replying to your comments about my query [ How do you plot meteors in
sub-zero wind chills? ].  I have done counting of meteors for the major
streams on and off for about fifteen years, just enjoying the sky show and
waiting for the great fireball.  Over those years most of the time has been
on mountain tops out west (Tucson) or the east coast (NY and Wash DC).  I
have watched the Geminids in 20 below wind chills and have a fairly
standard outfit available to keep warm.  This consists mostly of my
downhill skiing equipment (sans skis, boots and goggles).  Ski bibs are
great and coupled with some thermal underwear, ski hat, thinsulate gloves,
and a down sleeping bag, I am usually toasty warm even on the coldest
nights.  Keeping the tape recording with me INSIDE the bag keep its
batteries warm and the dew off so I have never lost the recorder due to the
enviromental conditions.   My concern was to do plotting means letting out
some of that warmth as one sits up to plot the meteors.  I will try it this
winter short of getting frostbite.  There is always the car parked nearby
to act as both a wind buffer and a portable warming hut!!

Note on video meteors for July 20.  Looks like I caught 7 in 2 hours of
video tape.  Starting to examine the tape for July 21 but there is a battle
going on for the "good" VCR and TV between my wife and I over meteor
viewing and Olympic gymnastics.  No radiant associations as of yet because
for some odd reason I cannot correlate the star patterns on video with a
star map (10 degree square field).  I am pretty sure of where the camera
was pointing but the camera is more red sensitive than we humans, so star
brightness is a bit different on video making matching up to a star chart
tougher, especially since the video goes down to 8th magnitude and BRNO is
6-7th.

George;  I will be sending my visual charts to you shortly.  I'm trying to
resolve a dispute in our local astronomy club about the latitude/longitude
of our Savage observing site.  I'll probably head over to the USGS office
today and get the "official" position. Once I have I'll send out my
reports.

Pete Gural

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