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(meteorobs) Semi-casual observations; September 20-21



For a while, I've thought that I should at least try my hand at plotting.  I finally did sort of a trial run last night. Well, it was different...

I watched from 10:05-11:33 UT, which came out to be pretty close to 1 hour Teff after I subtracted the dead time.  Under skies of LM=6.8, I saw 25 meteors and managed to plot 23 of them on copies of the old 1989-edition IMO gnomonic maps.  I ran into numerous snafus that I won't mention here (at least I didn't hit the pause button on my tape recorder).

The plots were pretty ugly, but gave me a general idea of what to look for in radiant association. With all the errors and intangibles, I feel that knowing the radiant positions and just associating them via the shoestring might have been as accurate, in addition to giving a better overall picture of visual rates and magnitude data.  I can see the advantage of plotting, however, for those who can watch for an extended period in confirming or discovering suspected radiants. I also know that experienced observers probably achieve the accuracy needed to say that a plot is truly an objective representation of the meteor path.

September 20/21  10:05-11:33 UT  
Teff: 1.0 hours.  Mean limiting magnitude: 6.8
Location: Chiloquin, OR.  Latitude 42.576N Longitude 121.867W

Stream (#, mean magnitude)
Kappa Aqr (0, --)
SPI  (3, 5.0)
DAU (1, 3)
North Apex (2, 2.0)
South Apex (1, 0)
Sporadics (18, 3.2)

--
Wes Stone
http://skytour.homestead.com


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