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Re: (meteorobs) Pro-am co-operation (was Rob McNaught)
GeoZay wrote:
> There are indeed lots of
> good professionals who mean well and try to intermingle with the amateurs,
> but there are probably a lot more that wouldn't "lower" themselves to get
> involved with amateurs. A very common problem in a variety of sciences.
From my experience, professionals in the meteor world have been
supportive of amateur observers, not least because our observations are
an important data source. This is based on experience at joint
meetings, the fact that there is an IAU (that the's professionals'
international body) Pro-am meteor group, their willingness to attend our
meetings and give talks, and from direct contacts. Perhaps things are
different in the USA from in Europe. They are busy people and cannot be
expected to follow meteorobs, however, I'm sure that if you wrote to a
professional meteor astronomer with some specific questions about meteor
physics, comets, origin and evolution of meteor streams and the like
you'd receive a helpful reply, possibly with a reprint or two of popular
article or a research paper. The hardest letters to reply to are the
open-ended inquiries.
Another reason you wouldn't expect meteor professionals to belong to
this listserve is because is about meteor *observing*. The expert
meteor observers are almost entirely amateurs and most see this list.
As George bemoans, not all leading amateur observers post to this
list, however, they will answer direct messages. Part of the reason
they don't have time to respond here is because they have duties
elsewhere, including replying to large amounts of direct
correspondence, data reduction and analysis. After 20-odd years of
explaining the basics over and over, it can become a little wearisome,
and some of us rightly or wrongly prefer leave it to a new generation
to do its bit. Sometimes when I've felt moved to respond, I've found
that George (especially George) or Lew or Wayne or Bob or Mark or Rob
etc. have got there first, so didn't take up bandwidth reiterating.
Malcolm
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