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Re: (meteorobs) Plotting: Three Stooges Method

Greetings Kim et al,

Enjoyed your tales of nighttime plotting! :>  Brought a good laugh... but
sure a lot of truth in what you said!

>I must admit, never have I found anything that seemed so deceptively simple
to be so
confoundingly frustrating. 

Laughing here... yes, that can be true! :>  You have to watch, though, that
people don't <try> to make it sound more complicated than it is! ;>

>a meteor appears that *may* be coming from a known radiant.  I decide to
plot it.  I throw my ruler up into the air to "place" the path.

Some observers use a ruler.  Many of the observers on this list use a piece
of string, or parachute cord, or something like that.  They must have many
more hands than me, and live in much warmer climates! ;>  I don't use either
of those methods.  When I see a meteor that I decide to plot, I immediately
throw up my right hand (I'm right handed) and mark the path with my thumb
and forefinger.  I don't move that hand, or my eyes, until I have the
beginning and end points of that meteor embedded in my brain...  Only then
do I grab my pencil, and plot the meteor...

>I feel I have the path, now I need to see the time. 

I have been using talking clocks for years now, and have converted Pierre
and a number of other observers to them.  They are available many places,
but the best selection (and the clearest voices) are on the ones sold at
supply shops for the blind.  I used to use a large talking clock, then went
to a talking watch (which died after a while) and now use a slimline talking
clock about 2.5"x4"x .25" which I hang around my neck.  I just touch it in
the dark to give the time and it speaks - in 24 hour mode, which is great,
no conversion! 

>I grope for my recorder, finally find the pause button, while still holding
the ruler to the sky. 

I keep all my important stuff... clipboard with plotting maps, pencils, and
pocket tape recorder... inside my sleeping bag, on my lap.  That way, I
always know where they are.  My sleeping bag is inside a custom made 'body
bag', stitched from heavy reinforced silver survival tarps... keeps my
sleeping bag protected from moisture from heavy dew and frost, and helps to
reflect my body heat back inwards in the winter.

I don't leave my recorder on pause.  In fact, I never use the pause button
at all.  I do perform 'wheel checks' periodically though... yup, those
little wheels still turning... just to make sure I am still recording.  

When plotting... I see the meteor... I hit my clock... it speaks the time...
my thumb and forefinger fly up to mark the spot.  I memorize it, then grab
the clipboard and plot it.  Then I record the data on tape.  Sometimes I
very quickly record it on tape, then plot.  My finger knows exactly what
recorder button to press in the dark without looking at it.  Afterwards, the
clipboard, pencil and recorder go back to my lap...

>I stare and stare and stare at that region of the sky and finally realize
the meteor was over the peak of Ophiuchus.

It really helps to take the time to learn your naked eye sky really well.
When I was being trained by our meteor coordinator years ago, he made us all
learn not only the constellations, but the Arabic (and other) names of the
stars as well.  This really came in handy when learning to plot... You can
pinpoint (and remember) locations of meteors much more easily.  Instead of
'over the peak of Ophiuchus'... it might have been halfway between
Rasalhague and Rasalgethi, and headed towards Unukalhai! ;>

>I cautiously put the ruler down and reach for my red light and charts.  I
turn on the red light, and in order to free up my hands for plotting, hold
the light in my mouth.  

I use a small red flashlight, takes 2 AA batteries, and hold it in my mouth.
I avoid the nice metal 'mini Maglites' as they are too cold in the
wintertime.  I also avoid the hard plastic flashlights, as they are too hard
on the teeth.  I try for a nice rubbery one, much easier on the teeth, and a
bit more insulation for the batteries.  I also keep 2 extra flashlights
handy... one red, one white for emergencies.

>I get stung on the tongue by an ant.  I spit the ant and several grains of
sand out, then return to the chart.

Only problem up here is mosquitoes sometimes, if they are numerous...  The
observing frustrations up here tend to come in the wintertime... accidently
breathing on your glasses and frosting them over... dropping everything as
you're wearing heavy gloves... 

>An outburst of 15 simultaneous meteors occur while I am staring down at my
charts.  By now I can't remember which direction the meteor was traveling,
or what the beginning and end point was

If I forget the path or the direction, I scrap the plot, and go on to the
next...

>I "plot" the meteor just as the cat jumps on my lap and all my tools get
scattered.

To avoid surprises by cats or other animals (and it's not cats I'm worried
about!), I set up a portable motion sensor light about 10 feet away from
me.... and I have my back to my vehicle, so that covers off a bit more
ground for any possible intruders...

>My chewing gum, I notice, is quite gritty with sand now.

I avoid gum... don't want to choke on any fireballs, but do take a bag of
non-gooey cookies for that 3.00 am snack to perk me up...

>But the most frustrating thing of all, I think is getting home and not
being able to accurately predict the radiant drift for various minor shower
radiants due to the
inadequacies of my charts....
>and my Petersons charts have the RA and dec, but I can't translate that
well into actual degrees.

Ah, the fun part, reducing plots.  Take a look at the July issue of NAMN
Notes, on the website at http://web.infoavedot net/~meteorobs.   I did up an
article on 'Analyzing Plotting Maps'.  I don't use a fancy atlas... just
Norton's Star Atlas 2000.  It's great, and has a nice size scale for meteor
work, and marking radiants on.  Before I go out observing, I get out a
calculator, and calculate the radiant positions for that night.  To get
normal RA for your atlas from degrees.. eg. 125 degrees means what?  take
125 divided by 15, equals RA 8 hours... then take the remaining decimal, .33
times 60 to get about 20 min... so 125 degrees means RA 8h 20m.  Or... just
<ignore> the calculation... and relabel your star atlas RA from 0 to 360
degrees!  That works too.  If your atlas is hard to use, you might consider
getting one that shows the constellations a little bigger.

>I still don't know what one grid on the Atlas Bruno chart represents, in
degrees, 

I never even worry about that!  I ignore it.  I just mark my radiants on my
Nortons... then when I go to reduce my plots, I transfer the positions
over... using just the star <patterns> themselves.

>If I hold my 12" ruler to the sky at arms length, how many degrees of sky
am I covering? 

If you just want to plot, just plot.  You don't have to know the exact
number of degrees to plot the meteor!  Just go by the star patterns in the
sky, and match them to your plotting map.  Ignore the numbers!  

However, if you want to verbally give an estimate on your tape recorder as
to about how long the meteor was... remember that the pointers of the Big
Dipper are about 5 degrees apart.  Don't make it more complicated than it
has to be...

>But until I started plotting, I never realized I had so many thumbs.

Fun, isn't it?  I'm sure the guys will give you much more detailed info on
your queries.  I try to keep things as <simple> as possible...  Out in the
field, I try to minimize effort - have to in our cold winters up here.   

Back at the desk, I also try to keep things as simple as possible...
Although I love math, I think the fun is in trying to make things sound
simple - and not trying to confuse people by overkill with numbers! ;>

Hope the above has given you a couple more comments to digest, and maybe an
idea or two!

Clear Skies!

- Cathy
  in the Great White North...

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