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Re: (meteorobs) Dr. C.P. Olivier & the AMS archive
On Fri, 9 Apr 1999, Jim Richardson wrote lots of useful information
concerning the AMS records. I'll just refer to snippets.
> also became the AMS Executive Director, and is so today. In 1996 Dr.
> Meisel turned over the day to day operation of the society to an
> all-amateur Operations Staff, and we have been making steady improvements
> and modernizations since that time. I have several prominent members of
> this mailing list to thank for the progress that we have made in the last
> couple of years.
I'm delighted to hear about the delegation and progress. This is too
valuable a resource to be lost through lack of organization. Talking to
Dr.Meisel in Smolenice, it sounded a massive task. I wish you continued
progress and thanks for your team's efforts so far.
> Personal Note: certainly the most interesting portion of the database,
> that portion covering the years surrounding the 1966 Leonid outburst was
> loaned out by Dr. Olivier sometime around 1970 to some institution or
> person and was never returned.
Catastrophe! What happended to Dr. Olivier's correspondence?
> The new AMS staff is well aware of the potential benefits of organizing and
> placing this archive into a more convenient and accessible format, and we
> have already had several debates on the best ways to achieve this goal.
> Such a task would be formidable and require many man-hours of work, so we
> are approaching the topic thoughtfully and in logical steps.
Yes some thought now will save lots of effort in the long run.
> Our first
> task is to modernize the way in which we collect, organize and archive
> *currently* gathered data, ironing out the kinks in that system prior to
> looking toward the older data.
This is what the BAA Variable Star Section did. First get new data
submitted digitally, then transcribe the earlier data amongst a team
of hardworking volunteers.
I personally have this problem digitising lots of old telescopic data
for analysis with RADIANT.
> With specific regard to Dr. Olivier's use of telescopic meteor observations
> from AAVSO, this is, frankly, the first time I have heard about it.
We used to do a similar thing in the BAAMS, collecting lots of these
casual observations with the aim of doing an analysis of sporadic
radiant distributions. It didn't work in the end because the
collection rate was too low to keep the variable-star, comet hunters
etc. interested. If every BAAVSS member had recorded them, we might
have got somewhere. WAlso there is a large body of data the Keith Hindley
supposedly had, which never got passed on to me. There's supposedly
about 6000 observations with a goal of 25000. Observers recorded
the approximate position and direction of flight to nearest 10 degrees.
There were specialist telescopic observers in the AMS too. One
project I've been itching to do, is to compare the telescopic results
of Bill Gates et al. from the Florida campaigns of the early to mid
1970s with those of Mark Vints and myself around the late 1980s. So
are the different methods (visual, telescopic, photographic) being
separated for easier access?
> Another potential source about the rates of sporadic telescopic meteors
> might be obtained from those individuals who regularly seek for comets. In
> my own tiny "archive" of papers, I have a report written by Don Macholtz on
> sporadic telescopic meteor rates through the year, received from him when
> we both were members of the San Jose Astronomical Association (SJAA). I do
> not have this paper handy, but seem to remember the late winter rates at
> something like only 0-2 per hour, with late summer rates reaching about 4-6
> or so per hour. This is also obviously dependent upon the time of night.
Those sound about right. Did I read recently that Don has recorded
his 10000th telescopic meteor?
Malcolm
tele@imodot net
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