(meteorobs) LM's

Thanks for responding Mark. I had accidentally sent this to you directly instead of to the group on Jovian. I agree with you on all points. My use of LM 6.0 and a 6th mag. meteor wasnt definitive but rather a glossing over of the LM's in the dark sky range as opposed to those in 3 and 4 LM range. For myself I cant profess to have seen a 6th mag meteor but my total hrs on meteors is around 100. All of the faint ones are very near to the center of field of view (actually originating very close to the most sensitive region of the eye we employ when using averted vision.) Opik's rough rule is that we perceive only 10% of all 5th and 6th mag meteors.

Back to my hypothesis: Dark sky meteors are only limited by the observers abilities but washed out skies impede perception by reducing contrast. Thus a LM of 3.5 may only permit mag 2 or slightly fainter to be perceived.

An LM of say 3.5 is achieved because the observer can 'strain' for the faint star the he saw for only a moment until -integrated over a short time- he can say it is definitely there. This option is not available with a meteor. So the dark sky gap between LM and actual meteor may be .2 or .5 but as constrast washes out the gap may become 1 to 1.5 magnitudes - thus the sliding scale.