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Re: (meteorobs) Counts versus Plots
Although I'm in the pro-plotting camp, I just want to support what Mark
Davis wrote. Learn the basics first before attempting to plot meteors
either visually or telescopically. First learn the sky and how to
obtain reliable measurements of the standard parameters (quality is
often better than quantity). Only once this becomes routine, should you
consider plotting on a night of low activity. It's all too easy to
become flustered if you see two in close succession, and all the data
for the meteors become unreliable. Plotting can be a lot of fun, but it
needs preparation.
Mark wrote:
> Although it is clear that plotting is the preferred method many times,
> counts are still used by all the major meteor groups.
The BAA Meteor Section still uses counts alone. My attempts to promote
it amongst experienced BAAMS observers have failed. Plotting had such a
bad press in the sixties and early seventies. However, the observations
made by Prentice and Alcock, and more recently by the AKM have shown
that a decent plotting accuracy is achievable leading to more
information on minor showers.
Malcolm
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