Re: (meteorobs) LM

Robert,

Personally my lowest limit for observations is +5.5 with no major showers

to monitor. If a major shower peak is close I observe under worse conditions

although I rarely observe under a sky worse than +5.0. I usually reach at

least +5.8 from my backyard though.

At the MAC99 site there is a Leonid flux estimator that calculates the

ZHR value for a given set of circumstances and one of these is the observation

site. You can choose either Urban, Suburban, Countryside and Mountaintop

I think. I don't know where you observe from, but I'd suggest you go to a

countryside - rural location. I don't know what that means in terms of LM in

the United States, but here that would be better than +6.5 . It would also be

good to go somewhere really high - I'm quite tempted to go to 2000+m

elevation here, but for now elevations up to 1500m do just fine, with LMs

down to +7.3. Leaving the densest and 'dirtiest' part of the atmosphere below

you improves your LMs tremendously!

Do you use glasses? A member of our team uses glasses and his usual

LM is only around +5.2 to +5.5 and he rarely gets below +6.0. Some time

ago Marco Langbroek suggested there might be a certain limit of LM for

a given person. He concluded that from his experience at Calar Alto and

Mongolia where he couldn't go below +7.2 (correct me if I'm wrong!).

Perhaps some other member of meteorobs can help you by suggesting

some nearby dark location?

Clear skies!

Jure A.