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Re: (meteorobs) NAMN Target Showers: June 1997
Bob,
I'll step in front of Mark here,a nd throw my .02 in. Yeah, it is a
whole bunch of stuff to start with, especially if you don't have much
astronomy background. For where you are, I'd say look toward the East after
about 1AM. Jupiter is bright and lower to the Horizon; and Anyares is the
red star in Scorpio.
The sagittarid radiant (Which is the point in the sky that meteors from a
particular shower "Appear" to come from) is in between. So just look out in
that direction; if you see a meteor it's about 50/50 that it's a
Sagittarid.
If you ever have the opportunity, you can always come to the NJAA
observatory in NJ, and I'll tutor you, but that is a long drive. Forget
about plotting for now. First you need to look at some meteors. If you have
a sky atlas, you can take that Right Ascention, and declination and find
out where the radiant is; if you don't, for now, try and buy what is called
a planishphere, which will at least teach you the constellations (Book or
Map stores, and observatories and astronomy clubs usually have them, as do
mail order telescope places, and Edmund scientific.) I'd guess from your
description of where your knowledge is, that would be the best thing to try
and do; learn the constellations. Once you have that, we can point you in
the right direction. Once you have them, we can start to show you how to
learn what information to collect, and how to record it.
Good luck, and keep asking questions!
Wayne