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Re: (meteorobs) Oct 21/22 Orionids continue normal
Norman writes:
>It has become much harder to see truely stationary meteors as I can detect path
>lengths as short as two minutes of arc.
This surprised me, Norm, as I'd estimate my minimum "horizon" for detecting
rapid motion to be more like 10' or more! How do you manage this? Is the
"magnification effect" from your glasses as pronounced as some have thought?
Anyway, this leads to YET ANOTHER newbie question on the NAMN observing method: I have been using
a special "0.5" speed for what I call "semi-stationary meteors". These are
meteors which I consider too short to estimate the speed of, but which I
nonetheless have a reliable impression of motion detection from. Is this an
acceptable practice, or what do others do?
>One interesting sight was a satellite flaring to -4 and white as it was
>coming out of a cloud. It stayed that bright for 5 seconds, then dropped to
>+4 within a couple of seconds. What could produce such brilliance? The
>shuttle I have seen at -3 a couple of times.
I've seen "flashers" as they're called, get up to about -2 in my limited recent
incarnation as an observer. If you want to find out what the object most likely
was, I can point you to some of the PC software and Web sites that you'd need.
Clear skies all, since I've ONLY CLOUDS for endless days now! :(
Lew
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