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Re: (meteorobs) Reminiscences of Novembers past




>So, for what it is worth, there is another possible radiant to check for 
>this November (besides Huan Meng's).  This will be a great challenge, 
>however, given the expected storm rates predicted for the Americas and for 
>the western Pacific.  If we are overwhelmed with the numbers of LEOs, it 
>will probably be impossible to divide our concentration for competing minor 
>showers.  Of course, anyone who can videorecord will have a unique 
>opportunity to detect other possible radiants.

An interesting outpouring of possible radiants for this time period! I'd not
be surprised, personally, if several very minor showers have gone undetected
near the Leonids peak over the past few years - or for that matter, around
the peak times of the other "really major" showers, PERs, GEMs and QUAs.

By the way, Richard, it is true that *intensified video* is well suited for
gathering data on minor showers during the LEOs. But I might not say that it
is *UNIQUELY* suited for this: both visual and telescopic meteor plotting are
also methods of finding new minor radiants - with telescopic actually a very
good competitor for intensified video, in terms both of the accuracy of meteor
paths (so detection of complex radiant structure), and detection of meteors
below naked-eye visibility...

What's more, as Sirko gently points out, visual counting and plotting can
both easily suffer from "expectation bias" - if an observer has an idea of
exactly WHAT they're looking for, even the most experienced will often in
fact see it, regardless whether it's there or not. This sort of bias has a
far, FAR more difficult time creeping when observing telescopically.


And of course, with telescopic, one doesn't have to worry about being too
"distracted" by a meteor storm going on, to note any minor shower activity.
On the other hand, and unlike video, one DOES have to worry about possibly
missing the show of a lifetime while staring into the eyepiece! :)

Clear skies,
Lew


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