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Re: (meteorobs) David McCarter's Posting on Probabilities of REALLY BIG fireballs.
>I also understand Dave's point of reasonable care. I share his
>concern for the weaker minded in our society, although I
>can't help feeling it's natural selection at work. :-)
>David McCarter
It may well be that Levy's point holds more weight for comet hunters, David.
But the substance of his editorial was an attack on the International
Supernova Network mailing list: a list who's express purpose was to allow
SN hunters to communicate POTENTIAL finds with each other more quickly, for
confirmation and further observation PRIOR to the professional community
being notified.
In Levy's view, amateurs have no business communicating about their
observations in this way because (as far as I can tell from the article):
a) professional astronomers are unable to distinguish for themselves
between CBAT notifications on one hand and amateur communications on the
other.
b) amateur discovery searchers AS A GROUP are incapable of keeping
potential discovery data distinct from actual discovery notifications.
c) amateurs are supposed to be competing against each other for these
discoveries, and so (to closely paraphrase Levy) should be keeping all
information about potential discoveries secret!
The ISN list (which I subscribed to) EXPLICITLY disavowed being a
notification mechanism for professionals, and had no intention of usurping
CBAT's authority. And yet the mere act of sharing potential discovery
information among amateurs in real-time so enraged certain professionals
associated with the CBAT (prior to Levy's jumping on the bandwagon), that
they began publishing broadsides against ISN in *public* forums: S&T was
just the pinnacle of this (so far)...
I'll end my tirade here, as this is WAY off-topic for 'meteorobs'. But
suffice it to say that, in my very humble opinion, Mr. Levy was wrong (at
best) or disingenuous (at worst) in his entire position on this one.
Clear skies,
Lew Gramer