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Re: (meteorobs) Sino-Dutch Leonid Expedition 1998





> Louis Binder wrote:
> 
> > Myself and others will be traveling to West Texas very close to the
> > McDonald Observatory,known for its dark skies. We plan on setting up
> > 35mm cameras and using high ASA speed film. Possibly a video camera,
> > we ran into trouble estimating the peak of the Perseids in 96 as they
> > came too fast for even hand held clickers or shouting out. Any
> > suggestions on what to do to collect meaningfull data on a possible
> > storm??
> > --
> >
> >              Dr. Louis S. Binder,Optometrist
> >                 Member Fort Bend Astronomy Club
> >                         & Houston Astronomical Society
> >                        Clear Skies
> >                        2nd Star to the right and straight on till
> > morning
> >                          Visit our Clubs Home Page at
> >                http://rampages.onrampdot net/~binder/
> 


I guess the first thing to realize during high activity is to make 
priorities. Don't try to collect a full suite of data (e.g. not only 
mags. and classification, but also train, location, time of appearance 
etc.). Instead focus 
on the real important: stream and brightness (drop appearance times, for 
example. Just note start and end of observing intervals in approx. 5 
minute periods). Use quick to pronounce 
words (e.g. "leo" instead of " bright Leonid") and a memo-recorder. If 
activity is very high, use short runs of observations, not prolongued 
periods without any breaks. When 30 minutes is too much for your brain, 
perhaps 5 minutes is not.
Anyhow: this is indeed the big problem we have to face with observing a 
true storm. We talked a lot about htis last two years, but there is no 
real solution. Moreover: practise shows that field experience always is 
different from theory. What may sound good in theory does not work in 
practise, but also vice versa.

Before the 1993 perseids, we thought a ZHR of about 150 was the maximum 
observable with 'normal' methods (e.g. speaking into hand-held 
recorders). But experience with the 1993 Perseids (ZHR ~400) and the 1995 
alfa Monocerotids (ZHR ~600 -see our article in 'Astrophysical Journal' 
April 10, 1997) showed that 'normal' albeit slightly changed methods (we 
spoke only short magnitude and classification into our memo-recorders, 
e.g. "alfa plus2, alfa plus3, alfa plus 1....." etc.) easily work even 
with ZHR up to 600. So it is clear that the limits are (far) above ZHR 
600 before having to use something alternative. But yes: during the 
Leonids we definitively will cross that limit.
By the way: from the above experience with 1993 Perseids and 1995 alfa 
Monocerotids, I am slightly surprised to read that Louis could not cope 
with the 1996 Perseid numbers. I suggest that perhaps this was due to not 
cutting in details recorded. Or perhaps the team used only one recorder 
for several people? That is not recommended during high activity: give 
each observer his own recorder.

- Marco Langbroek Dutch Meteor Society and member of the 1998 Sino-Dutch 
Leonid Expedition)


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