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Re: (meteorobs) Counting rates
> It strikes me that this counting discussion needs a jolt of common sense.
> Lets's use the analogy of the animated movie....
> introduces other
> levels of human physiology that render counting above about one meteor per
> second ("one-a- thousand, two-a-thousand.....") pretty impossible, especially
> for long observation periods.
Sirko and I did some investigation on how accurately one can
COUNT meteors at high rates using computer simulations, and
published them in WGN 26: 109 in 1998 . We did this to find
out the limits of perception at very high rates, and to re-evaluate
claims of 40 meteors per second during the 1966 Leonids.
We tested a number of experienced meteor observers and people
who normally just went out once for the Perseids. The bottom line
was that at rate above 4 meteors per second one cannot count
individual meteors but just estimate meteor rates. Its in fact a
physiological thing, experience in meteor observing etc. did not
affect the results too much. However at rates of 40-80 per second
or so one can still estimate the meteor rates at a 30-40 percent
error level, which is not too bad.
Anyone who is interested to do some testing is encouraged
to download Sirkos meteor simulation program at
ftp://ftp.imodot net/pub/software/metsim/
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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