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Problems determining LM (was: Re: (meteorobs) Re: Limits of IMO LM charts?)
I was out last week for the Perseid maximum and tried my first LM counts
(I'm a newbie). I found it fairly frustrating. I chose the Cygnus region
as my first attempt since it was overhead and in the area I was going to
watch. I found having the Milky Way going through part of the counting
area a real problem. Because of the reduction in contrast it seemed to
definitely obscure some stars that would otherwise be visible.
The other area I counted was Draco. It was easier, but I found it
sometimes difficult to determine if a star was inside the boundry or not.
I ended up with LM's in the 5.3 range although I know that my site
regularly has > 6.0 for me. I can generally see individual stars down to
6.0. I'm wondering if the ability to distinguish individual dim stars that
are close together is the best correlate of LM. If my eyeglass
perscription is not giving 20:20 I might have trouble separating two close
dim stars. However, that does not mean I can't detect stars of the same
magnitude when they stand alone. Perhaps the AAVSO method would be better
in this case. What do others think?
I suppose I will get better at this with practice, but I wonder if a visit
to my optometrist is in order.
---
Bill Tschumy
Otherwise -- Austin, TX
Creators of Artificial Life
bill@otherwisedot com
----------
> From: GeoZay@aoldot com
> To: meteorobs@latradedot com
> Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Re: Limits of IMO LM charts?
> Date: Tuesday, August 20, 1996 11:51 AM
>
> In a message dated 96-08-20 08:27:38 EDT, you write:
>
> << One of my all time high favourits is Draco: I find this
> area quite 'easy' to use, though problematic with Lm's below 6.0.
>
> Marco Langbroek >>
> ------
> Marco,
> Draco is one of my favorites as well...but I hate with a passion the
Cygnus
> area. There are a few others i dread, but Cygnus is on top of my hate
> list...I also agree about what you and Trond has said about this...I
advocate
> double counts...but this is usually advised to those who have some
> experience...But once they have made a couple observing nites
successfully
> doing star counts...I then usually suggest the double count.
> George Z.
> George Z.
>