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Re: (meteorobs) Variations in Visual Leonid Rates
> > Looking at the variations in reported rates among experianced observers in the
> > eastern USA for the morning of Nov. 16/17 brings to mind a coversation I had
> > with John Bortle at a Stellafane convention several years ago. The subject of
> > variations among experianced observers in the same time zone at the same time
> > for the Leonids was discussed. The point we agreed on was that there was
> > something more than fatigue or perception at work, and that this effect might
> > have an objective cause. I believe that it was he who had suggested a possible
> > explanation, that this was due to a micro-filamentary structure, or clumps in
> > the filamentary sheets of the Leonid stream. Does anyone agree, or disagree?
> >
> George,
>
> I would tend to disagree. You could bring all of those observers
> together at the same location and at the same time and still get the
> same scattered results. I do believe in the micro-filamentary structure,
> but perceptions and local conditions aside, observers in the same
> general regions should see the same activity and variations in that
> activity.
>
> Bob
I think this topic is rather controverse, but certainly interesting.
It's quite hard to believe, that sites only a few hundred kilometers away
should experience different activity caused from filament structure. What
are a few hundred kilometers in terms of the dimensions of space? It's the
distance that Earth is travelling in a few seconds. However, it takes at
least a few minutes up to an hour to travel through very condensed
filaments like those producing the outburst of the alpha-Monocerotids and
Leonids.
On the other hand, when having a closer look at the 1995 alpha-Monocerotid
data, I got the impression that a kind of micro filament structure was to
be seen on a local scale. I remember the observers from Ondrejov reporting
a double maximum, which was exactly what I found in the video data. Even
more, the high resolution activity profiles (1 minute) from Ondrejov and
Chemnitz (that's where I observed from - maybe 150 km away) looked exactly
the same. The profiles from other more remote observers, however, did by
far not fit that well.
This might hint on some kind of micro filaments, but to see major
differences in the activity as such, it would probably need much larger
distances than just a few hundred kilometers.
... just some thoughts of mine.
Sirko
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