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(meteorobs) Meteor Hunting Degree Measurement Problem (Help!)



November 17, 2001

Greetings Meteor Enthusiasts!

I have a panicky problem to make known.

I was meteor hunting last night (November 16, 2001)
and was surprised to see how far apart the two stars,
Caster and Pollux were in Gemini.  I held out my
closed fist at arms length and was stunned to see that
it was only a little longer than the length between
the two stars.  It is written by NAMN that such a
closed fist measurement would equal roughly ten
degrees and the length between the pair of stars is
known to be about 5 degrees.   I would say with a good
amount of certainty that one of my closed fists is
large enough to equal ten degrees.

Thus I am now wondering if I have been measuring the
path length of some meteors to be too small and
underestimating the size of meteor shower radiants,
including the Leonids.  Gemini was just a few degrees
above the horizon when I took the fist measurement
which I wonder may have had something to do with this
problem.   Please help!

My e-mail is unclefireballmtf@yahoo.com.

Best regards,

Mark Fox
Newaygo, MI USA




    



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