Re: asteroids and TASS

[hjohnson@pluto.njcc.com (Herbert R Johnson)]

On Fri, 15 May 1998 12:24:34 -0500 (CDT), "Peter R. McCullough" <pmcc@astro.uiuc.edu> wrote:
*>>If you have followed recent devlopments on the asteroid fronts,
*>>you know that the role of amateurs in asteroid hunting is becoming
*>>smaller and smaller. The recently upgraded LINEAR project ( Lincoln
*>>Lab ) is cleaning about everything down to mag 18.5 or so.
*>>So don't spend time searching what you could do with a 135mm
*>>telephoto lens. Even the Mark4 will not cut it.
*>>Alain
*>
*>
*>I am interested in Alain's comment especially because of its technical
*>and human meaning. There was a nice article by Howard Brewington on the
*>last page "commentary" of the popular magazine "CCD Astronomy" of Summer 1995.
*>Brewington predicted:
*>
*>	"Visual comet hunters would have no chance against an all-sky
*>  CCD search.

*>>This was inspired by seeing "Deep Impact" last night.  This has removed all
*>>desire to be in any way associated with comet or asteroid searches.
*>>I will concentrate on all sky mapping.
*>> 
*>>(snip)
*>>Tom Droege
*>

I'm not sure what Tom had to say, and I'm sure McCullough weighs in
for continuing to search for solar system objects in his lengthy comments.

I'm not particularly daunted by deep survey programs "taking away" all
the objects to be found. It is quite frankly *silly* to think that any
one survey or number of surveys is going to "take out" all the objects.
FOr some odd reason, there seems to be this thought that the skies are
a static entity, unchanging, steady: and so a "good" survey will therefore
sweep up EVERYTHING and that will be that.

I'm only a casual student of the history of science, but I believe most
every time someone announces "closure" on a field of study, some odd bit
of "leftover" material turns out to be a small part of a much bigger
puzzle. Beyond that, as a student of and OBSERVER in astronomy, I know
that the sky is a rather big domain, and that many parts of it are not
observed very often or for very long.

Furthermore, if you are not obsessed with "discovery", to be the FIRST
to see X or to find object Y or phenomena Z, there is a great deal to
be done in *repeated observations*. The TASS variable survey program
makes that point.

Furthermore, every so often something changes in the sky, some new object
makes an appearance. And, available technology allows ALL of us to stretch our
obvervations in some fashion over time: longer, deeper, broader. As
counterpoint to "Deep Impact", I recently saw a comet movie that inspired
me: two independent Canadian amateurs took time-lapse photos of Hale-
Bopp and produced seperate movies showing the dynamics of that comet.
Here, a comet EVERYONE has photographed or observed, amateur and professional:
yet, there was still room for a new and dramatic look at it.

Given the above, I find annoucements of the "end of amateur discovery"
to be both premature and to miss the point. One needs to be thoughtful
about the limits of one's technology and search program, and to be
wise in the use of those resources. But chance favors the prepared and
the persistant; and most observations of the sky are so narrowly considered
that even reviewing COLLECTED data can yield both new discoveries and
confirm (or supersede) old discoveries. So, fresh observations can still
cover old ground fruitfully, or uncover new events and objects. There
is still plenty of sky for all of us.

Herb Johnson

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