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Re: (meteorobs) Coming in November Sky & Telescope...



>  this is "meteorobs"....e.g., meteor observations
>  or meteor observers......not a 500 or
>  600 level class in astrophysics.
>but, seriously, I'm more interested in discussing
>the time, date, sky quadrant to look at
>to discuss whether or not we passed thru
>a tail in 1839, or 1869, is relevant only to
>he extent of, if possible, projecting what
>e will most likely see in November, 2001

Hey,this ongoing dust trail debate has some 
very practical implication for the observer, and the
bottom line of what Rob and Esko wrote is relevant
for answering the following basic questions: 

-  Will there be a Leonid storm in 2001 ?
- If yes:
	-Can I see it where I happen to live or 
	- will I have to travel somewhere.
	- when will the maxima occur ?
	- better observe in the US or, say,  Korea?
 	- what rate are we going to expect. 

Especially the last question cannot be answered without looking at 
some old and very old datasets, estimating 
the distribution of particles across and along the trails, and
looking at some critical historical cases. 

Thus I do not find Robs and Eskos postings really off topic. 
I found most of them easy to understand, but I have to say that
I read Robs and David Asher's 1999 WGN paper (after
all WGN is an amateur journal!) more then once.

The fact that there are very different opinions around of what
we are going to expect just means that we have to go
out observing to improve the dataset. After thinking a bit I'll go to 
Korea to watch the Leonids, and do mainly visual countings. 

If you don't like to read postings reflecting the
scientific background of your hobby - simply delete
them, there are not very many of them. I delete many meteorobs 
postings. But don't complain afterwards that you did not see a 
Leonid storm while others did. 

Hartwig







  




H. Luethen
h.luthen@botanik.uni-hamburgdot de
priv: Behnstr. 13, D-22767 Hamburg
lab: Institut fuer Allgemeine Botanik, Ohnhorststr. 18
     D-22609 Hamburg, Germany
Tel: 0049 (0)40-3800551 priv
     0049 (0)40-428-16-337



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