[BAA Comets] Low-elongation search project / Kreutz group comet

[Roger Dymock]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for your comments and to Denis for the website address. I had assumed that the
supernovae search still worked as I previously mentioned and was going to talk to Guy
Hurst about it. I guess that the process of allocating specific search areas would
have come out in that particular wash. However as it obviously doesn't work then I
will not use that method but will go with advising where to search (e.g.; for
returning comets, Kreutz group and so on). Definitely we should use the BAA website
and the comets-disc list for rapid communication. 

Regards

Roger Dymock
Email: roger.dymock at ntlworld.com
Tel: 023 92647986
Skype: rjvdymock
MPC Observatory Code: 940

-----Original Message-----
From: Nick James [mailto:ndj at nickdjames.com] 
Sent: 03 May 2012 19:16
To: Roger Dymock
Cc: comets-disc at britastro.org
Subject: Re: [BAA Comets] Low-elongation search project / Kreutz group comet

Hi Roger,

> I was thinking of something along the lines of the supernovae search program
whereby
> observers (in this case societies) are allocated specific areas of sky to search
for
> comets.
Personally, I think that allocating specific search areas to observers 
is doomed to failure. TA tried this with the nova/SN search program but 
people with the motivation to search for objects do not want to be 
restricted to particular areas or galaxies.

By all means give guidance on the best areas to search, Graham's Kreutz 
tool as mentioned by Richard is a good example of this, but I don't 
think directing people to search fixed areas will work.

We can also help by providing rapid feedback and logging of search 
fields. The BAA website is about to undergo a revolutionary change and 
we can drive it towards being a much more useful resource for the 
observer. Denis Buczynski pointed out this site:

http://comet.observations.free.fr/all-comets-table.php

and we should certainly be able to do something similar for our 
observers/searchers.

Nick.