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Re: (meteorobs) Slow periods

Hello Wayne,

> It would be interesting to see if the slow periods we all see correlate in 
> time. When the monthy NAMN totals come out, I will examine them for periods 
> when 2 or more observers (not in the same location) are watching to see if 
> they are actually the same time periods.

when you do so, you have to bear one thing in mind: 'Slow' periods in the
observation are the rule, not the exception!

Actually, there are two effects that are involved:
The first thing is the common feeling, that meteors appear clustered, i.e.
there are times when 4 or 5 meteors come at almost one instant, and then
you see nothing in the next 30 minutes. This can (and has) be explained by
pure statistics and probability theory. If the meteoroids are distributed
completely arbitrary in space, we expect them to appear according to
Poisson distribution (or exponential distribution, dependent on how you
approach the problem). That is, we will have many meteors appearing close
to one another, and some large gaps inbetween them.
I have checked meteor distribution several times (and others as well, of
course) and found, that meteors almost always follow those distributions
very strict (even during the maxima of large meteor showers). There are
only very rare occasions, where the appeared to be a *slight* difference
between probability theory for random spread particles and
meteor observation.

The second thing is, whether those quite times always appear at roughly
the same time. I realized the following: My rates are always very high in
the first 30 minutes of observation, and then they come down to a 'normal'
level. I cannot help myself - it's not that I fall asleep so soon ;-) -
but this is something which I experience again and again. Maybe it's just
that I have (without really noticing it) 130%  concentration at the
start of the observation, and come then down to a normal level.
What I want to say is, that George's 'phenomenon' might as well be a
personal effect like mine, a kind of 'midnight crisis' so to say. ;-))
Cheers, Sirko

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*           Sirko Molau             *                    __              *  
*          Str.246 Nr.16            *             " 2B v 2B "            * 
*          D-13086 Berlin           *                                    * 
*   smo@informatik.tu-chemnitzdot de   *                       Shakespeare  *
*   http://www.tu-chemnitzdot de/~smo  *                                    *
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