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Re: (meteorobs) Questions




Kim>>Hi!!
Went out and observed July 26/27 and saw an increased amount of 
activity from July 23/24.
I have a few questions:

1) Can you count the meteors into your tally, if you have not 
offically started?<<

If you have not officially started yet, that means you haven't been completely
paying attention to the sky either. You probably haven't noticed how long you
haven't been looking up or when you can say you began.  You might have missed
some additional meteors and cannot know how to adjust Dead Time with actual
Observing time. Normally the answer is No. These are some that got away. I
don't count these if I had not officially started yet, unless I'm relatively
confident that I can show an adequate dead time and a start time. 

Kim>>2) Since the moon will be interfering the night of the maximum of the 
Persieds , and you see a meteor and call its magnification, does the 
moons brightness come into account at all, since the meteor probably 
may have been brighter?<<

A bright moon will make a meteor appear dimmer if you compare it with a
normally dark sky in your mind. This is where you take note of stars with
known magnitudes to compare how a certain magnitude will look under different
lighting conditions. You adjust.

Kim>>3) One more. I had a slow moving meteor, bright , mag2 coming from 
the south to the Northwest direction. If traced back it was coming 
from Aquarius. Since I do not quite understand the N/S Aquairds, 
which one does anyone think that this meteor belonged to.
Thats it for now
Kim<<

The N. Delta Aquarid and the S. Delta Aquarid radiants are fairly far apart.
You should look up where the radiant is in the sky prior to observing to make
that determination. If you are plotting, you can do this later. Then with a
ruler you can measure back and see which radiant your meteor will pass the
closest to. If within reason, chose the closest one. However you will find
some meteors that could be lined up thru both radiants. When this happens, I
automatically count it as a S. Delta Aquarid if its near their peak. Or a N.
Delta Aquarid if it's near it's peak nite. Its' pretty much a judgement call
that you will have to chose one or the other. It's probably apparent that it's
not a sporadic, so you will have to chose one and that's the process I use. 

George Zay