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Re: (meteorobs) Star Counting
I agree very strongly with Bob's observation re: star counts. In fact what makes
the counts so frustrating for me when I'm at a dark site, is the necessity of
restarting the count, sometimes two or three times running, because I catch a
meteor that needs plotting or recording mid-way through the count. To avoid
errors, this always leads me to restart the count.
And per NAMN recommendations, I do this for at least two, and sometimes three
different fields, roughly every half hour to hour! The result, especially on a
night like the Perseid max, is that "1 minute" counts can end up covering 15 or
20 minutes... Maybe necessary for accuracy, but certainly not much fun. :(
(And double-counting only compounds this problem!) Coincidentally, I did find
the Taurus LM triangle to be relatively easy to count: that's how I managed to
recount it no less than *four* times, before noting the official star count.
It's true that it is a pretty long-sided triangle, but the three boundary stars
are very easy to pick out: with my trusty train-cord in hand, lining up the
boundaries of the star-count region is fairly easy. Thus I'm pretty confident of
my star count for that region, precisely because:
a. it was a new region for me to count, so I was very cautious about
both the boundary and the count; and,
b. I was so amazed at the result (after curiosity luckily caused me to
check the table for the corresponding LM), that I couldn't believe
it at first, and redid it several times...
And by the way, in answer to George's question, no, I don't where glasses while
observing. Puzzling, perhaps, but that is what I observed that night! Of course,
as we all know, when the data doesn't fit our preconceived notions (in this case
about limiting magnitudes), the appropriate response is to CONFIRM that data and
then maybe change our ideas - NOT to toss the data out as anomolous... ;>
Thanks to Trond, Mark, Bob, and Casper for their feedback, not to mention their
"hints" (:>) that I fill out the low end of these tables myself with the AAVSO
atlas... If I think I'll be getting down to the Keys more often for my observing
(God willing), I will definitely do exactly that! Thanks again all!
Clear skies all,
Lew
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