We are getting ready for the next Meteorwatch, which will be the Perseids, the best Meteor shower of the year.
Last year we did some cool things, but this year we are going to do it a lot better.
Here is last years trailer and keep an eye for the new one, which will be out soon.
I have found enough indirect references on Google searches to figure out what you do with MeteorWatch. You are apparently working on a more formal system for reporting data, but from what I gather you'll be getting the data indirectly and your timing data will be based on the user's estimates. I'm trying something more ambitious, writing custom software that permits the user to get observational times good to one second. But I'd like to know more about your project on the chance that we can coordinate efforts.
Chris
That sounds very interesting. What's the temporal and spatial resolution of the individual meteor observations? I've poked around trying to get more detail on MeteorWatch, but I can't seem to find any details about exactly what data is collected.
I am putting together an effort somewhat like the MeteorWatch program, but a bit more elaborate. I have written a little JAVA program that people can download to their laptops; when they observe Perseids on the morning of Aug 11-12, they use the program to record the time they see meteors by simply clicking the mouse once for each meteor. The program writes a text file that the observer sends to me the next day. I gather all the data together, collate it by computer, and produce the first spatially collated dataset of Perseids. There might be some scientifically interesting results — if I can get enough observers. If you’re interested in this project, the web pages for it start here:
http://www.erasmatazz.com/page78/page128/PerseidProject/PerseidProject.html
i really enjoy going through your blog and i’ve been following from a distance and finally felt the need to comment to let you know. keep posting. is there a RSS feed? I just got bloglines and want to add your blog in there.