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(meteorobs) Re: Florida Geminids very iffy+vision
The same problem with a faster-moving storm Joe mentioned is going to affect
me. I had originally counted on seeing the Geminid maximum ahead of the
front, but it has sped up and will be passing by during the night. All I
can hope for is some small breaks for casual watching. Second year in a row
with a front right at max watching time, and 1997 was lost to El Nino. So
1996 was my last Geminid max.
I am around 20/100 vision, but wear glasses that correct me to perhaps 20/8.
No overcorrection is used but turning the frames slightly up off my ears
achieves a similar effect. The bottom line on eye charts is for 20/10 and I
can read that without error. Hence, I should be able to read even smaller
stuff. I am also good at seeing faint objects in the sky. Even my night
color perception is good. The only item I lose out on is perception for
meteors -- I am just average there, based on long-term reported shower rates
and the numerous people I have observed with over the years. So far I
haven't lost any vision at age 53.
The open clusters M6, M7, M35, M44, M41, and Double Cluster all resolve into
swarms of faint stars naked eye for me. I can't count the stars due to
closeness. Using some AAVSO charts some time back I actually looked up
individual stars fainter than 7.0. I can tell what the LM is at a glance
just by how the background star fields look like from experience. One of my
favorite test stars is the 6.0m wide double located 3 degrees W of Alpha
Equulei -- that one is easy most nights I go out. (Equuleus the Little
Horse, east of Aquila.)
In the 70's BIll Gates (not from Microsoft) could see the same things I can,
but he had 3.8 times my meteor perception. He was so extraordinary the rest
of us were studying him much more than the results he was getting. Nothing
he ever saw was comparable to anyone else at the time, or in most of the
time since. 50/hr in February? Quite beyond my ability. In 1974 Bill
included a little plea in his letter about the good Leonid shower that year
: "there really was a good shower, and not just my eyes." I reached 40
Leonids/hr in 1974 so was able to confirm what Bill was saying.
Too much altitude affects eyes adversely due to oxygen starvation. Above
6000 feet I see less than in Florida. Some time ago Joe mentioned seeing a
great sky over the Grand Canyon. I was there in 1974 June and saw a rather
bright, unimpressive sky despite clear weather -- LM 6.5 was all I could
get. From Rocky Mountain Natl Park at 8000 feet the sky was uniformly
bright and also with a 6.5 limit.
Norman
Norman W. McLeod III
Staff Advisor
American Meteor Society
Fort Myers, Florida
nmcleod@peganet.com
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