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Re: (meteorobs) Re: Arietids

Why not use also a polarizing filter to attenuate the sunlight ?
 
I am not joking about my family name, but I was exploring that way with a convex miror and a webcam. I used several filters and the polarizing one gave me the better results, even if I did not caught one meteor, I have results at night ... without filter.
 
Continue anyway your trials, orange man.
 
John M POLARD
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Matthew Collier/cis/evp/Okstate
To: meteorobs@atmob.org
Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2002 3:34 PM
Subject: (meteorobs) Re: Arietids


I just had to chuckle when I thought about my past experience with the Arietids.  I hope some of you get a good laugh out of it too...

A few years ago, I decided that I wanted to observe some daylight meteors...and I got to thinking.  Thinking can be dangerous for me.  I decided that if I could increase the contrast between the optical output of the meteor and the background sky that I would have a better chance of seeing one.  Orange is the complement to blue, right?  So I figured if I were looking through an orange photographic filter, the sky would appear darker and I might get a signal to noise increase on the meteor.  Well, I bought my filter at  a camera store, and inserted it into a small aperture I had cut in a cardboard box (about 35cm on each side).  The box formed a "dark room" to keep glare out of my eyes.  Of course, there was lots of glare from the bottom of the box (through which one put one's head).  So I bought some dark cloth and taped it on like a cloak.  Okay, you should be laughing by now.  While wearing it I looked like some monocular creature from the old series, "Dr. Who."  I tested it for about 30 minutes one early June morning while reclining at the beach in Grand Isle, Louisiana.  I wish I had a picture...

I didn't see any meteors in that half hour and I haven't tried it since.  But I'm not completely convinced the idea is faulty.  So if you're at a beach or state park in Oklahoma (where I'm living now) in early June and see a block-headed, orange-eyed, black-cloaked creature wistfully observing the heavens, don't be afraid!  Come on up and strike up a conversation about meteors.

Matthew Collier
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