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(meteorobs) Re: NHAS November 16/17 Summary, GRALE (the NON-garbled version!)




Someone wrote to ask about the little report I just sent out on my observing 
last night. That format is pretty nasty-looking, isn't it! :)


Here's what it all means:

>               Teff   DCV     F    LEO  NTA  STA  AMO  XOR  Spor
>    0505-1045  4.5    09h+60  1.0  58   2    3    3    0    20


>0505-1045
   Hours I observed last night (in Universal Time, 5 hours ahead of
   Eastern Standard). So I was out under the sky - not including any
   breaks I took - from 5 minutes after midnight until quarter of 6.

>Teff 4.5
   Teff is short for "effective observing time". This is the total
   time I was watching the sky, minus any breaks I took, AND minus
   any time I spent looking away to record each meteor I saw.

>DCV 09h+60
   This was a typo! It should have read "CFV 09h+60". This was my
   "Center of Field of View": where my head was centered, while my
   eyes roamed around the sky all night. In this case, the spot was
   09:00 RA, +60:00 Dec, not far from the star Tau Ursae Majoris.

>F 1.0
   This is the "obstruction factor" - the ugliest calculation in
   most meteor reporting. Basically, 1.0 means I had no cloud cover
   nor ground obstructions in my field of view the whole night.

>LEO 58
   Each recognized meteor shower of the year has a three-letter code
   assigned by the International Meteor Organization. LEO is the code
   for the Leonids, the major shower out of the Sickle of Leo which
   were actually at or near their peak of activity last night. I saw
   58 meteors from the Leonids during my 4.5 hours of Teff.

>NTA 2  STA 3  AMO 3  XOR 0  Spor 20
   I ALSO saw two meteors from the North Taurid shower, 3 South Taurids,
   3 Alpha Monocerotids, no Chi Orionids (this was another typo - I wasn't
   actually watching for these last night), and 20 "Sporadics", or meteors
   that were NOT associated with any recognized meteor shower.

Hope this helps! Note by the way that this is ONLY a summary format I used to 
let everyone on this list know what happened last night. The actual observation 
log is in a less terse, more complete format specified by the IMO: I'll be 
forwarding one of these reports for last night shortly, so PLEASE write to the 
list again if you have any questions about THAT format!

Clear skies,
Lew