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(meteorobs) Re: Meteor Activity Outlook for Aug. 3-9, 2001




A hearty & sincere "THANK YOU" to IMO Secretary General Bob Lunsford, for the
wonderful service he continues to provide the amateur meteor community, with
these weekly "Meteor Activity Outlook" postings. I know they are a lot of work
to put together, and Bob should be assured that they ARE appreciated. (I for
one read them religiously, and often print them to share with local groups.)


This week's edition of the Outlook did raise a question for me, though, which
I thought might be worth readdressing. (As 'imo-news' is generally NOT meant
for extended discussions of this kind, feel free to direct any response emails
on the following topic to the address 'meteorobs@atmob.org'.)


The Outlook states that "With the intense moonlight practical meteor observing
sessions are not possible this week." And of course, this statement is quite
right under normal circumstances. When a bright moon is present, the observer's
Limiting Magnitude will be quite low (and LM correction factor correspondingly
high), and hourly rates away from the major peaks are often too low to provide
statistically significant samples from individual visual observers.

However, with a sadly moon-blazoned major shower peak (PER) approaching next
week, observers will be forced to record many hours in bright moonlight, on
several nights running! Under such circumstances, the perennial question is
bound to arise, of how moonlit observations can be compared with prior years'
(dark sky) observations? Just as puzzling, how is a broad activity curve for
this year's Perseid stream to be developed, based purely on observations on
just one or two (possibly three) nights centered at the peak??

Does it in fact make sense, for SOME few observers to record the very low
pre-peak rates the Perseids will display under bright moonlight next week?
Maybe the answer is, "No, since there will be a wealth of POST-shower peak
observations, as the moon wanes the week of 12 August." But I thought the
question worth bringing up NOW, before observers worldwide finalize their
observing campaign plans for the 2001 Perseids.

Clear skies all!
Lew Gramer (GRALE), NAMN


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