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(meteorobs) I'm Back/FOV



In a message dated 96-10-23 02:10:46 EDT, you write:

<< First of all, I report the center of my field of view in celestial
 coordinates such as RA 60 DEC +10 on an hourly basis. I don't know about
 other observers besides George and I, but we usually face the same
 direction all night. I'm not about to get out of my nice warm sleeping
 bag just to shift my position a few degrees. I figure out beforehand the
 optimal position and stick with that all night. This allows a radiant to
 drift across my FOV at a rate of 15 degrees per hour allowing differing
 views of the sky.
 
 We could follow the same exact area of the sky all night if George is
 willing to attach a motor to his observatory and have it rotate with the
 sky. ;> 
 
 Bob >>
---------------
Bob and Everyone,
I'm back!  I have been very busy with the local activity and all. Just got
off duty this morning, but will be working again tomorrow.  The Santa Ana
condition is breaking down, but another one is forecasted for this
weekend...So...I might disappear again for a spell...will have to see.  I'm
scheduled to work Saturday and then monday overtime...If stuff hits the fan
by Saturday, I will most likely be working on Sunday as well. 

Anyhow, I just waded thru a ton of email off the list and elsewhere. I
probably won't be able to address everything brought up. I unfortunately
wasn't able to observe the Orionids during the peak days. Sounds like some
decent activity was going on. I can't get them all, but I did get some data
leading up to the peak nites. It's going to take me awhile to reduce the data
down to conversational level. I was able to note that on my last observing
nite of Oct 18/19 the most active hour for Orionids was the last hour where I
recorded 12 Orionids along with other meteors from other showers as well as
the sporadics. I'm sorry I missed you again Joseph...One of these nights I
will get to meet you...Just don't fall off the observatory.  Sorry Bob, I
won't be putting any kind of motor to rotate the top...too complicated for my
limited handyman abilities.  As to the discussion about FOV...As bob already
mentioned, we usually pick out the best direction before starting and let the
sky drift across .  I rationalize that each viewing hour is treated as a
separate viewing session independent of what I done before or will do at a
later hour. I keep the same FOV for usually a whole Teff hour. My FOV is
noted at each interval by RA and Dec.  I also observe at an elevation
anywhere between about 45 deg to about 70 deg. I will often pick out a
prominent star, asterism or other location that I have given a personal
identification as my FOV.  I record the star or whatever and when I do my
report I just look up that stars or whatever's RA and Dec. and record that on
my Summary. I sometimes will pick up my cot and turn it just a little bit for
some particular reason at a convenient moment...this is usually done just
before Bob shows up. Sometimes when the radiant presents itself to be my
center of view I will try to move my position some so that it won't...I like
to keep at least 20 degrees away from the center of a radiant...I don't like
looking dead on. The majority of meteors I see will be off to one side and I
want to have a good look to make a decent alignment...Plus I will notice it's
presence by it's movement a lot easier. 

Well, I'm back and will see if I can merge back into what's going on with the
list.
George Z.