This article is an excerpt from NAMN Notes, written by
Cathy Hall, and available online from the
North American Meteor
Network website. Article reprinted with permission.
On the Victoria Day weekend in May [2006] in Canada, Ed Majden was awarded
the Chant Medal of the RASC, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada,
for his contributions to astronomy.
The Chant Medal was established in 1940 by the Society "in appreciation of the
great work of the late Prof. C.A. Chant in furthering the interests of astronomy
in Canada". This medal is awarded to an amateur astronomer resident in Canada
"on the basis of the value of the work carried out in astronomy and closely
allied fields of the original investigation."
Clarence Augustus Chant is often called the 'father of Canadian astronomy', for
his efforts to expand astronomy education in Canada, and establish professional
astronomical facilities. He is also well known for a very unusual meteor event
that occurred on Sunday, February 9th, 1913, in the skies over North America. A
large number of slow majestic meteors traveled in small groups on a similar path
across the sky, one group after another in procession. Chant documented the
observations - and the meteor event is now known as "Chant's procession".
Chant's extremely interesting paper on this event, "An Extraordinary Meteoric
Display", complete with many drawings and observers' reports, can be printed off
from the ADS website at
adswww.harvard.edu by looking under "Journal of the Royal Astronomical
Society of Canada", 1913, Vol. 7, p. 145, ref. '1913JRASC...7..145C'.
How fitting that the Chant Medal should now be awarded to a dedicated meteor
researcher!
We asked Ed Majden a number of questions about his meteor observations and
research. The following comments are in his own words, as provided in an
interview for NAMN:
1. How did you originally get interested in studying meteors?
"I joined the Regina Astronomical Society as a young student in 1953. My first
exciting observation was that of the transit of Mercury in this same year. The
RAS conducted visual meteor observations in support of Dr. Peter Millman's
meteor programs at the Dominion Observatory in Ottawa. I was introduced to
meteor observing at this time and found this very interesting. As Secretary of
the RAS, I helped organize a province-wide observation program called Operation
Perseid. See: JRASC Vol 51, No. 2"
2. What was your working career? What types of work did you do? Was your
career related to meteors in any way, or were meteors an interest that followed
due to related fields (electronics, optics, etc.... )
"After high school I enlisted in the RCAF and was trained as an Armament Systems
Technician. We looked after FCS Radars in fighter aircraft, missile guidance
systems, and even torpedoes if you were posted to Maritime Command. The
highlight of my career was a posting with RCAF No. 1 Air Division in Europe. I
spent a couple of months at 2(F) Wing in France on CF-100's and then was
transferred to 3(F) Wing Zweibrucken, Germany where we accepted our new CF-104
Strike Recon. fighters. Another highlight was working on the Bomarc SAM at La
Macaza, Quebec and later North Bay Bomarc. My military career ended after 27
years 8 months of service, at CFB Comox in 1986. Coming from the cold Prairies,
I decided to retire here in Courtenay, B.C.. The skies are not as clear as
Saskatchewan, especially in the winter, but the advantage is not freezing your
butt or continuously shovelling snow, ha! ha!!"
3. Where were you born? Where have you lived over the years... and how did
you end up in Courtenay, B.C.?
"I was born in Regina, Saskatchewan in October 1939. As noted above, I was
stationed at various units across Canada and then Europe. My first ops station
was St. Hubert, Quebec where I worked on the CF-100 interceptor."
4. Who were the meteor researchers that originally inspired you when you
first got started?
"When I joined the Regina Astronomical Society, the late John V. Hodges was
active in meteor spectroscopy, with an objective prism mounted on an old cut
film tourist camera. The Regina group obtained their first spectrum in 1955,
which was designated as World List Spectrum Number 187. This was the year the
RAS Observatory was completed, and Dr. Peter M. Millman came out for the
official opening. Peter was of course an early pioneer in meteor spectroscopy
and was a world authority. Peter and John got me interested in this field. The
RAS obtained a second spectrum in 1956, designated as Spectrum Number 201 on
Millman's World List. Meteor spectra were still few in number so all were
considered important at this time. The first meteor spectrum was obtained by
chance in 1897 during a Harvard stellar spectra patrol program. At the end of
1958 there were only 318 known meteor spectra on record."
5. What was your very first meteor project?
"John Hodges adapted his prism to an old Olympus 120 camera that I had. When he
was not using it I tried in vain to capture a spectrum but was not successful.
This was during IGY in 1957/58. At this time I was elected president of the
Regina Society, and was also the IGY Meteor Program Reporter for the group. When
I enlisted in the RCAF I became an armchair astronomer so to speak, reading many
papers on meteor spectra that were kindly sent to me by Dr. Peter Millman and
Dr. Ian Halliday, and others."
6. Over the years, what new projects, or new directions did your meteor work
take?
"In 1969 I read a paper by Professor John A. Russell in Sky & Tel. He was using
a surplus K-24 aero lens fitted with an objective prism to record meteor
spectra. This sparked my interest again, and I started looking for a prism of my
own. The one I found was unsatisfactory as it was a large 60 degree prism of
dubious quality. I mentioned this to Peter Millman and he suggested that I have
my prism cut into two 30 degree prisms. Not having the capability to do this,
Peter found a firm in Ottawa that could do this at a price I could then afford.
I mounted one of the prisms on a surplus F-2.5 Aero Ektar lens and fitted it to
an old 4X5 Crown Graphic camera. I obtained two Perseid spectra with this unit
in 1972 when visiting my sister in Boundary Bay, B.C.. I never looked back
since, as I was bitten by this bug!"
7. What are your current meteor projects?
"I am still using my old objective prism units to obtain spectra. My best one to
date was obtained in 1986, and Dr. Jiri Borovicka (at the Czech Academy of
Sciences and Ondrejov Observatory) and I wrote a joint paper that was published
in the JRASC. Sadly, the meteor programs at NRC were terminated as a budget
saving measure so I had to look elsewhere for experts in this field. Jiri
Borovicka kindly volunteered to measure my best spectra. I have since added
transmission gratings and an image intensifier system to my equipment. See my
home page at:
members.shaw.ca/epmajden/"
8. Who are your current meteor mentors?
"My current mentors are Dr. Jiri Borovicka, head of the meteor spectra program
in the Czech Republic. Also one of Jiri's grad students, Dr. Josep M. Trigo-Rodriguez
in Spain. I have also been in contact with Dr. Peter Jenniskens, from NASA/SETI.
He has my video intensified spectra in his archive and hopefully they will be of
some use in the future. I am also in contact with Dr. Bob Hawkes, Dr. Peter
Brown and other MIAC members. Also Dr. Jeremy Tatum who is not a meteor
spectroscopist but has a lot of experience with stellar spectra and orbits,
etc.."
9. What project results over the years have brought you the most personal
satisfaction?
"Nothing really sticks out here. Any spectrum that I record is exciting as
spectra on film are difficult to obtain using conventional equipment. Today,
there are many spectra on record so only the best get measured, as this is
rather time consuming and professionals have limited time for this."
10. What project results over the years do you believe have been of the most
use to the professional meteor researchers?
"Jiri Borovicka found my 1986 Perseid spectrum useful and as mentioned, a paper
was presented on it. Also, I hope my image intensified Leonid storm spectra will
prove useful in the future."
11. If a new person starting out in meteors wanted to get involved in the
type of meteor projects that you have been doing, what type of skills would they
need?
"This is a difficult question to answer. I once asked Ian Halliday if this was
still worth doing. He commented that the utility of doing spectroscopy is
complex but is still worth the effort. An amateur like myself operates from a
single location. It is very desirable to have height information by
triangulation. This requires setting up another station 30 to 100 km. away. So
far I have not found anyone that wants to do this."
"Today, precision blazed transmission gratings are preferred over objective
prism units. Such gratings are expensive especially in larger sizes. Large
format cameras with long fast focal length lenses such as Kodak Aero Ektars,
etc. are ideal. I have modified an F-24 British Aero camera to accept 4X5 cut
film. Unfortunately at $1.00 plus for each exposure this can quickly add up. I
also use a 120 format camera which reduces the cost of film but dispersion is
less than the 4X5 system. In the past, professionals used 8X10 glass plates but
the cost of doing this is prohibitive. These units will only record spectra of
meteors of -2.0 magnitude and brighter so your chances of recording a good
spectrum is rather slim. You can use up a lot of film before one is recorded."
"Amateurs tend to concentrate their efforts during the peak periods of major
meteor showers as this increases one's chances of recording a spectrum.
Unfortunately today, there are many spectra recorded from major showers like the
Perseids and Geminids. Unless you record a very good spectrum from these showers
it probably will not add anything new to the science, so is unlikely to be
measured at this time. Spectra from minor showers are still few in number so
these can still be important. Also, it is highly desirable to record the
spectrum of a possible meteorite dropping fireball. Chances of doing this are
rather slim however. The Czechs recorded a fireball spectrum with over 1000
lines measured. A dream of mine!"
"There is very little written on this subject for amateur consumption. Probably
the best source is the IMO Photographic Handbook, available for download on
their website. See www.imo.net
and
www.imo.net/photo/handbook. There is a chapter written on meteor
spectroscopy."
"Other sources I use are professional papers on this topic. Somewhat difficult
for the novice to understand and digest. Many of these are available on ADS, the
Astronomical Data Service website at:
adswww.harvard.edu &
adsabs.harvard.edu/ads_abstracts.html You can also check a good library for
technical publications on this subject. This will give you some idea of what
professional researchers are doing."
"Dr. Martin Beech from the University of Regina has just published a book for
meteor enthusiasts. It even has a couple of my photographs in it I'm told. I
have not seen a copy yet but Dr. Jeremy Tatum recommends it and is writing a
review of it. It's published in England, and might be hard to find here. The
publisher is Crowood Press. It's called "Meteors and Meteorites: Origins and
Observations", paperback, publication date February 2006, ISBN number 1 86126
825 4. The Crowood website is at
www.crowoodpress.co.uk"
12. Could you give us some web links to further information on your meteor
projects and the types of research you are doing?
"The best thing to do here is a Google Search for 'meteor spectra', 'meteor
spectroscopy', etc. This will turn up many hits of this subject. Too many to
list here."
13. With light pollution becoming an issue all over the globe, what do you
see as the best projects for dedicated amateur meteor observers in the future?
"Light pollution is indeed a problem. This can limit the length of your time
exposures. One just has to experiment to see what is acceptable. My own backyard
observatory site is unfortunately getting worse every year but I guess you have
to learn to live with this."
Congratulations go out to Ed Majden for being awarded the Chant Medal of the
RASC!