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Just saw that meteor watching remains active.  I'm hoping some one will write a story around this or a similar setting described below.

https://www.amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/#Orionids

It’s done in the dark with very dim artificial light at a remote location. It might include the drone of digital data from the government time standards shortwave station. Wind noises accompany the observations. Nocturnal animals call. Bats zip by observers. Surrounding brush serves as the restroom. Observers drink coffee the stay awake, alert and warm.
An observer breaks a deep silence by shouting a meteors coordinates to the recording volunteer.

This is not an Omotober story. Rather it’s a tour of a setting in which a story might develop.

Ami – Hello Betty. I’m Ami, the Amateur Meteor Initiative representative here. If you’re ready I’ll give you the introductory tour.

Betty – Glad to meet you. I guess I’m ready.

Ami – Here’s your modified electric torch (flash light). Sara and Stanley replaced the white LEDs (light-emitting diodes) with red ones. Using only red light helps everyone preserve their dark adaptation. But seeing with only red light takes some practice. We’ll start as soon as we need artificial light.

Betty – Thank you.

Ami – This octagonal slab provides a surface above ground moisture. It’s about five meters across. Our heads are rather close together. Let’s get your air mattress and sleeping bag and add them in the eighth observing position while we still have twilight.

Betty – Ok. But why no hikers stuff bags?

Ami – It’s just easier to arrange our torches, caffeinated drinks and other equipment in the old-style sleeping bags.

Betty – Other equipment?

Ami – Mostly personal items. I’ll get to that later.

Betty – Uh. . .

 

Ami – Now that we’ve gotten your sleeping bag and pillow set up and first thermos stashed in it, let’s see the other key points. Right here next to the octagon is where the recorder-time keeper sits.

Betty – First thermos? . . . The recorder sits sort of low?

Ami – That’s so the recorder doesn’t obscure the observers’ view. Each observer needs a clear view of his or her 1/8 of the night sky. You’ll only need to remember the constellations in your part of the sky.

 

Skip this (no story potential): Betty – That spinning thing over there that looks like a model time machine. What is it.

Ami – (Walking over to it) It does look a bit like a time machine from a two-star sci-fi movie. See this spare shutter with radial slots in it? The film preserves a multiple-exposure sky image – one picture each time a slot passes in front of the lens. Displayed on the computer screen, each meteor looks like a straight string or pearls. The stars don’t move enough between exposures to look like dots. Instead the look like continuous arcs. From the distance between dots we calculate the meteor’s angular velocity. Then the typical meteor height and a little trigonometry – presto real straight-line velocity. A spread sheet does the calculations. Naturally, Milano designed the disk’s speed control and Sara built it.

Betty – Glad the calculations aren’t my job.

Ami – Thirty years ago members did the calculations using tables. Not much thinking. Just repeat the same method. But extremely tedious and slow – an entire Sunday afternoon analyzing and checking the results from one fifteen-minute exposure. Twenty exposures to be analyzed.

 

Ami – Now that one-story, 5-meter by 5-meter building is the radio room, cloud or rain-out shelter, break room and everything else building.

Betty – And the TV antennas pointed slightly upward? Late late movie from space?

Ami – (giggle) Almost. TV from stations 1,600 kilometers south reflected from meteor ion trails. In effect it counts meteors in a volume of upper atmosphere halfway between us and the TV station. Sara tapped into the AGC (automatic gain control) getting a voltage proportional to signal strength.

Betty – Will the count be much different from here?

Ami – No. Not much. The value is to astronomers wondering about the accuracy of visual reports from that area can compare the time to our records. Presumably, someone else monitors our sky in a similar way.

 

Ami (entering the building) – During cloudy skys Sara puts one of her creature-feature collection in the video-disk player. Batteries charged by solar cells during the day power the video player and TV. Each disk Sara brings here features meteors and scary elements. She has at least 4 War of the Worlds versions, Night America Trembled and Without Warning which were inspired by War of the Worlds, Deep Impact and a cheesy DI knock off and who know what else. I’ve written quizzes for seven of them.

Betty – Fiction quizzes for meteor watchers.

Ami – Yes. Identifying errors in fictional meteor presentations helps us remember meteors reality.

 

Ami – You’ve seen the highlights. We’ll get into more details your next night. It’s time to get you situated on the octagon.

Betty – I’m ready.

Ami – Have you peed in the last hour? . . . Don’t look so shocked. It’s an important part of staying with the observations.

Berry – No. Uh. . . You said in those bushes?

Ami – Yep.

Betty – Can’t I just hold?

Ami – You’ll need three thermos to stay alert and warm until we quit at two AM. So far no one has managed a night without at least two pee breaks. Can you hold that well?

Betty – I guess not.

Ami – Ok then. See you at the slab.

 

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