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(meteorobs) Radio meteors-Santa Fe
Sunday November 16, 1997
There is an introductory radio meteor observing article in the December Sky
and Telescope Magazine. I read it quickly at my local library but haven't
had time to study it as yet. It seems to be a good introduction to the
theory but I hope it will not give people the impression that receiving
radio meteors is easy in a metropolitan setting. Radio meteor observing can
be very frustrating due to infinite varieties of interference and it is not
getting any easier as more radio bandwith is allocated for different sorts
of cellular communications and such. There is a lot of stray
electro-magnetic interference that messes up reception and lots of other
spurious signal crap. Earth based radio astronomy is getting more difficult
all the time and especially so over the past few years. Yet, if a person
has a clear and appropriate observing situation then radio metor work is
pretty easy.
I think there should be a different radio meteor article proposed for
ASTRONOMY magazine that would address the next level of radio work and also
be more favorable to the science of meteor observing. I don't have time to
attempt this writing in the near future but suggest that there is a need
for such an article.
I powered up my radio meteor array this morning at 3:30 am local time
(10:30 UT) and listened to two separate FM radios under headphones. I am
not going to be able to provide data on this year's Leonids but hope to
make an audio tape record through the predicted peak hours tomorrow.
Unfortunately the Leonid radiant isn't well positioned for the possible
peaks as it is too high in my local sky at 1040 UT and at 1334 UT the
Leonid meteors will be mixed with morning sporadics. But who knows what
will happen?
Winter radio reception is good at least for forward scatter out over the
North American Great Plains states from my site.
Clear skies,
Tom Ashcraft
35.41 N 105.57 W
Santa Fe, New Mexico
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