Re: (meteorobs) Leonids featured on MSN Home Page! ('meteorobs' back up - for now)

To: meteorobs <meteorobs@meteorobs.org>
Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Leonids featured on MSN Home Page! ('meteorobs' back up - for now)
From: "Malcolm J. Currie" <mjc@star.rl.acdot uk>
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2003 17:20:13 +0000 (GMT)
Delivered-To: meteorobs-mhonarc2@galaxy.atmob.org
Delivered-To: meteorobs@galaxy.atmob.org
In-Reply-To: <AAEFLGJKIIAOENAOILCPAEGPEKAA.lew@upstreamdot net>
References: <AAEFLGJKIIAOENAOILCPAEGPEKAA.lew@upstreamdot net>
Reply-To: meteorobs@atmob.org
Sender: owner-meteorobs@atmob.org

> Our own Joe Rao's space.com piece on the Leonids
> is featured top left of today's MSN Home Page:
>   http://www.msnbc.com/news/981694.asp?cp1=1

In the article Joe wrote:

"Meteor watching is best done, however, without any optical aids because
the streaks come and go too quickly to be captured in binoculars or
telescopes."

Have I been imagining these Leonids seen through my telescope?  I'd
replace "captured" with something like "best appreciated".

While speed is factor, it's also about apparent field of view, radial
sensitivity of the eye, and population index.  In normal circumstances
you simply see fewer apparently bright meteors through the telescope
compared with the naked eye.  The relative number of Leonids to
sporadics decreases with brightness like other major showers.  However,
if the circa 4 population indices quoted materialise, you'll see more
Leonids with a telescope or a video with big lens than with the naked
eye.

Malcolm

The archive and Web site for our list is at http://www.meteorobs.org
To stop getting all email from the 'meteorobs' lists, use our Webform:
http://www.meteorobs.org/subscribe.html

References:

(meteorobs) Leonids featured on MSN Home Page! ('meteorobs' back up - for now)

From: "Lew Gramer" <lew@upstreamdot net>