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(meteorobs) Fireballs and Tigers and Bears
Hi all,
Thanks Jim Richardson for doing a fine job of articulating what I was
thinking. I just want to make a comment or two on the topic of fireball
reporting. I've placed the fireball forms on the AMS web site to make a
start at getting us back into the fireball business. At the present, that's
the sum total of the fireball program, collecting some reports, placing them
on our "Bright Meteor Diary" page, archiving them appropriately, and
submitting a report for our annual report. Dr. Getman, who has had an
association with Dr. Meisel, is not yet formally associated with AMS, so we
are operating on a fairly small scale at present. We do not have the
resources at present to deal with fireballs as we did for the first 60 years
or so of our history.
If you look at the AMS web site, specifically the fireball pages, you will
see that we state right up front that we intend our forms for observers in
the United States. I have provided links to MIAC for Canadian observers
(which I will amend to indicate their interest only in very bright events)
and to IMO for those elsewhere. Any other national organization that wants
a link can e-mail me, I'll try to list them.
I would definately discourage multiple reports. Report to one body only,
that's plenty; it may save confusion for some poor researcher many years
down the road. Quite frankly, since I don't feel as some do here that this
is some kind of a contest, I say report 'em to whoever you want. Except in
the case of an extraordinary event like the Peekskill fall a couple of years
back, not much will happen to them anyway. Let's face it, for all its
puffery, there isn't any real scientific value to the FIDAC digests. For
the matter, my own "Bright Meteor Diary" is just a sort of gee-whiz thing.
It would be nice to develop a network of US coordinators again, willing to
go out and do the legwork after a bright event, gathering enough quality
visual reports to go for an orbit solution. That may come to pass, and
anyone interested in such a project should e-mail me directly. Good
observations that have scientific use, and good results publishable in
reputable journals are our goals.
Let those with closed minds stew in their own bile. There are not enough
hours in my day to surrender to carping and moaning.
Aloha,
Jim Bedient
Honolulu, Hawaii
AMS Electronic Information Coordinator
wh6ef@pixi.com
http://www.serve.com/meteors/
http://www.pixi.com/~wh6ef/