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(meteorobs) Some Unusual Obs.
I want to thank everyone who participated in this thread, I
feel that we all accomplished something with about 20 responces in
total. This is what the web is all about, the dissemination of
information and ideas. We have found out about a well respected
astronomer, Dr. C.P. Oliver and his wall of archived material and that
the most requested data, the 1966 Leonids, were loaned out in 1970 to
an unknown person or institution. If we at meteorobs and institutions
happen to inquire with a "by the way" in our e-mails about his lost
data, I have a good feeling that it will be recovered.
Malcolm J. Currie informed us about another lost archive of
about 6000 observations of telescopic meteors representing many years
and hours of work.
Mr. Currie asked a few questions. "The Amateur Astronomer's
Handbook" by James Muirden is an "expanded, revised edition,"
published in 1974. It was also published in Great Britan as "Astronomy
for Amateurs." I bought my copy in 1982 for the fifty pages it
devotes to making reflector and refractor telescopes. While his
published career may have started with revising Sidgwick's book,
"Observational Astronomy for Amateurs," the complete lack of credit in
the Forward and no reference to Sidgwick in the index indicates
Muirden must have felt he was his own author and source by 1974. I
enjoyed reading the book and it has a good "Optics 121" section for
those interested in that aspect of astronomy (better than Optics 101
as he was well experianced in telescope making). Muirden has a nice
writing style that's easy to read and full of tidbits of information.
Because of the restrictive view of normal telescopes, wouldn't
telescopic meteor parties with assigned patches of sky to observe be
of some scientific use even if they only got together twice a year for
a couple of hours?
Dave English
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