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Re: (meteorobs) ZHR discrepancies?
>So how can we be seeing ZHR's varying by a factor of 5 at the same times
for different observers? Is it possible the microstructure of the stream
varies so much over different locations? The time spans of the observations
seem too long for that. It could just be individual perception rates of the
observers, of course, especially at the fainter end. But a factor of 5 is
hard to explain even this way.
>
>Any thoughts?
>
>Mike Linnolt
I agree with Rainer, that spread sounds normal. Factors even larger are
possible. My first observing partner saw only half my rates. In 1980 there
was a brief appearance of an observer in Australia seeing a mind-blowing 6
times my rates ! BIll Gates is only 3.8X -- I would not have believed that
he could be beaten. Putting the two extremes together indicates that one
would be creaming the other with meteor rates 12X larger. It was rough
enough just being with Gates.
The largest factor I have personally experienced came with Gates, naturally,
in 1973 July from the Florida Keys. There was one nondescript hour in which
I saw 12 meteors, but Gates the same hour had a perception explosion, seeing
100 meteors! So there's a factor of more than 8. All I could do was yawn
at the invisible meteor ministorm. High perceptions have a large amount of
room to wander hour by hour : Gates ranged from 2.5 to more than 8 during
the time we were together.
Norman
Norman W. McLeod III
Staff Advisor
American Meteor Society
Fort Myers, Florida
nmcleod@peganet.com
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