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Re: (meteorobs) Re: NM naked-eye meteors+ more
How do you measure perception? Do you consider the FOV size? Mean LM for an observer?
Or is it just the number of meteors?
Clear skies
Jure A.
----------
> Od: nmcleod@peganet.com
> Za: meteorobs@jovian.com
> Zadeva: (meteorobs) Re: NM naked-eye meteors+ more
> Datum: 17. avgust 1999 16:22
>
> After about 1960 the knowledge that meteors can be seen without a telescope
> was lost by the public due to spreading light pollution. Hardly anyone
> today is aware you can see meteors with the unaided eye. The media is of no
> help in getting the word out either as evidenced by the following,
>
> >Scott Millett, 20, was trying to watch a meteor shower through a telescope
> >at his home on Santiago Drive, but light from a nearby light pole was
> >hindering his view ...
>
> >Millett broke into the base of the pole and tried to cut the main power
> >cord when he was electrocuted ...
>
> although possibly the deceased was similarly among the unaware. He
> certainly was unaware of hot wires.
>
> A media presentation took place in Fort Myers for the 1985 Draconids.
> Hearing about a possible good show coming, the TV crew went to the
> light-polluted observatory on the local community college campus.
> Telecasting from inside the dome with a 12" refractor as a backdrop, the
> public must have inferred the Draconids could not be seen without a
> telescope. To wrap it up, they slowly zoomed in on the long tube and panned
> its length while intoning the message of how much you could see if only you
> had a telescope this big. Not much ; the optics were poor as well as gross
> light pollution present.
>
> As soon as someone learns that you are an amateur astronomer, you are
> usually asked if you 1) do horoscopes, and 2) visit the local planetarium.
> If the inquirer learns that you are also interested in meteors, the next
> question is 3) do you need a telescope to see them. Joan has experienced
> these exact questions from people that she has told of my interest in
> astronomy. I outgrew planetariums by age 14. But I did go to the Hayden
> Planetarium in New York before heading to Africa to see the 1973 June 30
> eclipse. After learning in my earliest days that this was the biggest one,
> I had to see it. The Vega bulb was burned out that day and I informed the
> personnel.
>
> Bob forgot that he has above-average meteor perception when he wrote this,
>
> >I have read many messages that the
> >Perseids were dull this year. Well if you were out with me this morning
> >you would certainly not call the activity dull!
>
> Had I been with him I would have seen only half as many meteors. Throughout
> the 1980's he and Paul Jones of Florida consistently had the highest U.S.
> Perseid rates. It is a humbling experience to observe with someone who sees
> twice your rates ; it is downright humiliating to be with someone like the
> 1970's observer Bill Gates who sees four times your rates. There was one
> time with Bill when I hit a five-minute blank period. I had nothing else to
> do but count the meteors Bill was seeing -- he racked up 21 meteors that I
> didn't see any of ! Bill was saying that I stopped seeing them ; I was
> asking where they all went. Another time with seven of us observing, Bill
> saw seven meteors in two minutes while no one else saw anything. He
> wondered what our problem was.
>
>
> Finally, the New Age author of this quote,
>
> >One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light,
> >but by making the darkness conscious.
> >
> > -- C. G. Jung
>
> is at variance with Christianity. Mr. Jung and I differ on where we are headed.
>
> Norman
>
>
>
>
> Norman W. McLeod III
> Asst Visual Program Coordinator
> American Meteor Society
>
> Fort Myers, Florida
> nmcleod@peganet.com
>
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