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Re: (meteorobs) My Leonids night-out plan
On Thu, 28 Oct 1999 LARGEEYES@aol.com wrote:
> << I'm planning on spending my night out during the
> Leonids meteor shower. I won't miss a minute of
> darkness and will stay up till early morning. I won't
> go of course to school the next day.
>
> I will also be using my 90mm Altazimoth Meade
> Telescope, which I'm supposed to get in a week or two.
> My classmate friend will be bringing his telescope,
> and I'll try bringing all of my classmates. I might
> try getting someone with a 10" LX200 telescope. That
> would be kind of a Star Party! I'll be updating.
> >>
> I'm just curious why you are using telescopes for the Leonids. This cuts
> down on your viewing range so drastically that you miss so much....
For the average viewer they'll be better off without a telescope, and
especially one with a high magnification or narrow field of view usually
seen with f/10-f/15 (that's the focal length divided by the diameter of
the lens or mirror) refractors, or f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrains. A
binocular or low-power 'scope is great to have on hand to look at
any persistent trains. And it might be fun to look towards the radiant
for point meteors during an outburst.
For the serious observer:
The 1999 return is expected to be dominated by faint meteors, unlike the
1998 fireball show.
Telescopic observing tells about the density of particles at lower
masses than seen visually. Given sufficient observers we can determine
the size and location of the Leonid radiant with time.
I'd recommended mounted binoculars like 10x50 with a wide field >60
degrees apparent to increase the number of meteors seen.
Malcolm
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