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Re: (meteorobs) Counting meteors with a Palm Handheld computer
Hi
thanks for your email,
you wrote:
> the PC that will convert the data to a more readable format. After all, the
> observer will be uploading the data to the PC for transmission to the IMO;
The Palm format was indeed not intended to *REPORT* things, but
to upload data to the PC for further analysis.
> it won't take much additional effort to get it into a better format. I would
> gladly write the program myself, but I use a Macintosh.
This is no problem. There IS already a program within the package
to converts the Palm format into Ivan Goethals OBS language.
This format can then be loaded into Meteor Companion to produce
the current IMO format. It is EVEN NOW possible to generate IMO
report forms, absolutely freely choose adequate binning intervals, if
necessary down to 1min. This is enough for reporting even meteor
storms activities.
I like your idea to report "raw" (unprocessed) meteor data.
However in the end someone has to collect and analyse these
data. (The IMO collects the data? We collect the data, sending
analysis to IMO and setting up an archive for people who need
meteor data with individual timings? )
> Perhaps we should
> take the bull by the horns (sorry, that's an American expression for "attack
> the problem directly and immediately") and define a standard format and then
> recruit another meteorobs person to write the PC version of the program.
I think the software side of the problem is quite EASY to do, it will
take me some hours. This would be a simple DOS program, but
it would do the job.
A report format would have to include not only the meteors, but
also some general data (observer, name, location, IMO codes,
etc). One could
place this in another file (with another file extension), or into a
header.
> I'm
> sure that if we set about the task, we'll smoke out Rainer Arlt ("smoke out"
> is another American expression meaning "apply extortionate methods to force
> a person to come forward"), who will then help us decide on a proper format.
I know "Olli" Arlt quite well and will talk to him what he thinks.He
was with us in Korea to see the storm and was very positive with
the Palm idea. There are some other folks around who thought
about computerized reporting of data, e.g. Janko Richter, who
wrote and maintains VISDAT, a database already containing
a vast number of meteors.
(http://www.imodot net/visual/visdat/index.html)
This is a Dbase style reporting program, and my
impression was (ok, this was 1998) that it was optimized for
plotting and a bit cumbersome for traditional counting data. The
Visdat concept is that every meteor is entered into
a database, which comes close to what you suggest. They also
support "recordings" (which is precisely what is done with the
Palm). I didnI'll have a look into this up to now.
I'll see all these folks in March, when the German IMO section is
going to meet. I also intend to put the Palm
project to discussion there.
A general question will be how many people will record
meteors with Palms and similar devices. I'll write a
paper in WGN. More than 100 people have now accessed
the homepage; let's see how many of them will really observe
using the Palm. Trying to revolutionize IMOs data reporting
system won't work if in the end only 4 people collect data using
a Palm. However given the fact that they have vast problems in
getting their data into a digital format may be very positive
towards a format that includes old and new style data.
Cheers
Hartwig
H. Luethen
h.luthen@botanik.uni-hamburgdot de
priv: Behnstr. 13, D-22767 Hamburg
lab: Institut fuer Allgemeine Botanik, Ohnhorststr. 18
D-22609 Hamburg, Germany
Tel: 0049 (0)40-3800551 priv
0049 (0)40-428-16-337
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