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(meteorobs) Lining Up Meteor Report Columns
I concur wholeheartedly with Bob on the difficulty of analyzing reports
where the columns do not line up. I can offer a few other suggestions from
my own experience. One solution observers might try is to set their email
program to use ASCII characters alone, and use no tabs. But that is not 100%
successful as I have found out. So I also suggest that when lining up
columns such as magnitude distributions, observers place a zero in columns
where no meteors of that particular magnitude were observed. For example:
SHOWER -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 TOTAL
ORI 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0
0 3
This method usually works pretty well, but as another alternative, magnitude
distributions may be reported in such a way that you list only those you
actually observed. For example:
ORI (+1)2; (+2)1
Either way makes it a little easier on those who analyze the reports.
Clear skies!
Mark Davis
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Lunsford" <lunro.imo.usa@home.com>
To: <meteorobs@atmob.org>
Sent: Friday, October 12, 2001 6:33 PM
Subject: (meteorobs) Re: Meteor Observations Oct.11/12, 2001 La Crescenta,
CA
Sid and All,
Many thanks for sharing your excellent data with us. I do have one
request and Sid please don't think I'm picking on you! There are many
observers who share their data with the list that fall into this
category.
My request is to please make sure that your data columns line up BEFORE
sending your data to the list. During the year I analyze numerous
contributions and it is a bit frustrating when I have to try to figure
out which data goes in what column. The magnitude section below is a
good example.
A good ideal would be to send your first draft to yourself to see how it
appears. Copy and paste the original message to another blank message
and then make the necessary corrections. Once you line everything up
keep sending it to yourself until it appears perfect. I'm not sure about
other email programs but with Netscape I usually end up sending my data
to myself usually 2 or 3 times before finally sending it out to the
list. Even then it's not always 100 percent perfect.
This is certainly not mandatory but would certainly help out those who
print out and analyze meteor data.
Thanks for listening!
Bob Lunsford
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