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(meteorobs) Bright fireball mag estimates
Ian Gore of UK asked an interesting question on the ASTRO mailing list today,
which I (newbie that I am) was at a loss to answer: he asked how good the
correlation of magnitude estimates for bright fireballs was between different
observers. In other words, how objective are bright fireball estimates.
For that matter, how well correlated are magnitude estimates of normal meteors
between observers. (I understand that we ASSUME that all experienced observers
would estimate magnitudes the same way, but has anyone done any serious testing
of this hypothesis lately?)
Jan Kucera then further put in:
>I doubt that estimates made by unskilled persons might be useful even
>if we use an average of many observers. (As far as magnitude is concerned;
>I guess that averaging may be useful for position or maybe speed data.)
Jan, the study you cited was really intriguing. As a matter of fact, one of the
first "checks" which is applied to new observers' reports in the North American
Meteor Network is to compare the average magnitude of their sporadics vs. their
limiting magnitude. I know if this number is abnormally high, then the new
observer is asked to go back and try again - this time using comparison stars
etc. more carefully. I also seem to recall that population indices, etc. for
showers are usually calculated with a CORRECTION for the average sporadic
magnitude of the observer, among other corrections...
Interesting thread, y'all!
Lew