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Re: (meteorobs) Fwd: "New tech broadens amateur astronomy"

There was a well-attended pro-am meeting at the Open University in the
UK on May 10th on comets and meteors, organised by the Royal
Astronomical Society and the British Astronomical Association.  There is
certainly some impressive observations being made by amateurs.  Imaging
comets to near mag 20 with amateur equipment was jaw-dropping, even more
so from Britain's polluted skies.

The talks overran leaving little time for discussion, which was my
biggest regret.  Of course, there were many private conversations, but a
group discussion would have lead to more connexions and exchange of
ideas, problems, and solutions.  The amateurs need funds for observing
trips, presenting work at conferences, equipment like intensifiers, help
with software for automation and surface-photometry of comets, analysis
and interpretation.  Some of the talks, while still entertaining,
didn't really address the pro-am theme at all, or as well as they might.

The meteor talks didn't really cover much of the analysis, except the
BAA data for the Perseid second peak in Neil Bone's talk.  While I
welcomed the `plug' for telescopic data, I'd have liked to have seen a
RADIANT plot showing some results supporting the remarks about accuracy.
(If you're listening Neil, I can send you some plots of the former for
future talks.)  Andrew Elliott showed lots of video footage, but no
analysis.

Over lunch I did ask Iwan Williams what amateurs could do in addition to
current observations to help address his three main problems in meteor
streams.  He responded: spectroscopy, measuring deceleration parameters
(presumably with video), and statistics of hyperbolic meteors (again
video).

Brian Marsden gave the first George Alcock memorial lecture.  While
George is remembered for his comet and nova discoveries, he was also
a leading and skilled meteor observer in the time of Prentice.

The professionals having a growing respect for what amateur observers
are achieving.

Malcolm
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