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RE: (meteorobs) Coordinated realtime Leonid website?
At 08:01 PM 07/25/98 -0400, you wrote:
>A coordinated global effort for the Leonids would indeed be very useful!
>If at all possible, I'm all for it. Unfortunately for two reasons,
>it is not so easy to accomplish?
>
>First, there is the weather. It is quite unlikely that every one or two
>time zone will have clear skies for observers? East coast NA has some
>of the worst and unpredictable weather of the year in November. This
>means that many east coast observers will be travelling some unknown
>distance before they can reach better skies?
>
>The other difficulty is from means of communications. Those who have
>access to laptops will have the ability to send quick updates. But
>those without computers, observing from remote locations will only
>be able to update or alert other observers perhaps hours later.
The solution to each of these problems is at hand. I *hate* the telephone;
I do every thing I can to avoid using one. And I *especially* hate the
cellular telephone. I hate everything that the cellular phone has made of
our world today.
Yet, the cellular phone *does* have its place in today's society; and one
of those may be in providing the communications that could minimize *both*
of the above problems.
Let's say, for example, that there is some sort of a "central" office
within certain countries, or even areas of countries (so as to avoid high
cross-border phone tariffs). Those who are preparing to go out to observe,
or those who are already observing, could easily report in to the central
office which, when called by others, could pass on pertinent information
such as weather reports, latest meteor counts, etc.
Likewise, that central office could also maintain a presence here on the
reflector in addition to the NAMN IRC chat channel.
What's you folks think? No, I can't be available to "operate" that office;
the reason I hate the telephone so much is because I'm hard-of-hearing and
have a terrible time understanding *anyone* on the phone (just ask Lew
about our first telephone conversation, and how my son had to relay for me!).
>I'm sure everyone going out for Leonids will do their best to report
>their observations as soon as they can. Personnaly, I was VERY impressed
>by the quick reports and data posted here on meteorobs while the
>Draconids were still well productive! Before I went out to observe on
>October 8/9, I checked the list to see the results, and I already
>had a clear indication of what activity to expect in my area.
Those of us who have not yet done it may want to start working with our
e-mailer programs now to set up a filter to collect NAMN postings
separately from all other e-mail. During the Draconids, I had lots of
problems with postings coming in from a dozen other different places and so
didn't see a couple of the more timely Draconid NAMN postings until too late.
Clear skies,
SteveH
Shrewsbury Ma
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