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(meteorobs) computers and visual meteor observing
Jim Houser asks:
>what was the using computers in meteor astronomy talk about?
We've mostly been talking about ways to use PCs in visual meteor observing,
Jim. One subscriber (sorry, I lost the message to know which one!) had
originally suggested using a Telrad 1x finder, mounted on a tripod with
digital encoders, to site both the start and end of each meteor seen, plus
a keypad or keyboard to enter the non-positional data. This is a new idea
(so far as I know), and several people had thoughts on the pros and cons of
this...
Now the thread seems to have moved on to using digitizing pads (like the
ones often used in CAD and computer art), to record the plots. (This I
know, at least, was Andy Bacchi's suggestion: and a thoughtful one.)
By the way, Andy, if you're seriously interested in novel uses for
computers in visual meteors (and it'd be neat if you were!), I recommend
finding out more about the American Meteor Society! Their executive
director, Dr. Meisel, has been interested in projects similar to what
you're suggesting, but hasn't yet found someone with wherewithal and
interest to do a prototype and trial... ?
Once again, the AMS Web page (complete with email and postal contacts), is:
http://137.238.51.88/a.m.soc.
and Dr. Meisel is at:
meisel@uno.cc.geneseodot edu
As for George's comment that the old-fashioned plotting of meteors is
probably just as fast and accurate as the digital kind, I'd have to agree,
with present technology. However, the *archiving and analysis* of plotting
data COULD BE a whole lot easier with digitized plots, couldn't it? I guess
the digipad would be one alternative to consider, e.g. vs. getting folks to
scan their paper plots...
Lew
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Karen Simmons & Lew Gramer lewkaren@tiacdot net http://www.tiacdot net/users/lewkaren
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