[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re: (meteorobs) Meteor Elevation Estimates
Thanks, George! Like the esteemed Mr. Zay makes clear, beginning observers
should be out there under the sky first of all to have FUN, and also so
that they can learn how to record meteor data for useful scientific
analysis later! Finding your very OWN meteor shower during your first few
nights (or years) is NOT something a new observer should count on doing!
That would be sort of like, well, finding a comet on your first try... ;>>>
Of course, George also makes the point that figuring out whether a meteor
BELONGS to a particular shower or not depends partly on the observer having
an idea of that meteor's relative angular speed: if a meteor is too fast or
too slow for a particular shower, it shouldn't be noted as a member! But
this is part of the trick of making shower identification, and may not be
completely conscious the way making a particular speed notation for the
meteor would be. George suggests a system for making speed notations which
he bases shower ID on, but I'll let him tell folks about that himself...
Finally, this is just my UNOFFICIAL $0.02 for all those "lurkers" out there
who are really interested in getting into meteor watching this Summer!
Take care, and get out under the stars!
Lew
At 03:21 PM 5/21/97 -0400, you wrote:
>If you are doing minor showers...meteor speed becomes very important.
>Also if you are going to claim new shower discoveries...you should at least
>learn how to plot and do it routinely. You will notice that often impressions
>of what you see are different from what you plot. This could reduce the
>clutter of erroneous shower radiants in the long run.
>George Zay