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Re: (meteorobs) Re: Reported Fireball Magnitudes
Lew wrote:
>Howdy, Ed! One possible explanation is that your meteor spectra are over a
>much more limited field of view than a human observer: you might think this
>would come out in the wash when doing rate comparisons, but maybe not...
>
Hi Lew:
I'm using three spectrographs. The prism unit covers about 34 X 28
degrees, my grating units cover, 41 X 41 degrees and 40 X 50 degrees. The
grating units actually cover more as a bright meteor can be out of the field
of view and you will still record a spectrum if the meteor is bright enough.
I monitor the camera fields as best I can and I'm just not seeing the number
of fireballs that some are reporting. Also, how do you explain the MORP
statistics. The MORP cameras covered most of the sky, and they don't
reflect the high rates either! I think using an all-sky or fisheye camera
might produce some interesting information. It would be interesting looking
at the US Prairie Network results also, if you could find out who has them.
I still have to develope my plates, so they may have recorded something when
I was busy doing something else.
Ed
>After all, there are at least THREE low-population-index ('bright') meteor
>showers active at this time: PERs, CAPs, and SIAs (r=2.6, 2.5, and 2.9
>respectively). And in addition, the KCGs are high-r, but are also
>anecdotally associated with fireballs. The result is that if there is ANY
>relationship between the distance you observe from a radiant and the number
>of shower members you see, this relationship will skew the results of
>visual observers (with 60-100o FOVs) vs. photographs (10-50o FOVs)
>significantly.
>
>I'd agree that a fish-eye vs. visual observer study of fireball rates would
>be interesting though! Thoughts from Europe?
>
>Lew
>
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Edward Majden epmajden@mars.ark.com
1491 Burgess Road Meteor Spectroscopy
Courtenay, B.C. http://www.serve.com/meteors/majden.html
CANADA V9N-5R8 Amateur Astronomy
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