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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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