Participate in any of the below research topics

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RJN
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Participate in any of the below research topics

Post by RJN » Thu Jan 28, 2010 3:04 am

The posts below relate collaborative research ventures that anyone may participate in. A good way to participate is to follow the suggestions of the lead poster, or to make concrete and constructive suggestions as to how the research could best continue. Dissenting thoughts are OK, but posts in this forum should be generally focused on helping the project proceed to a successful completion. Posts made only to convey the opinion of the poster on the general research topic are best placed elsewhere.

- RJN

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RJN
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JGC: The Rank Amateur

Post by RJN » Wed Feb 10, 2010 8:29 pm

Here is an interesting article for those who might consider themselves "only" amateurs at science:

http://www.jgc.org/blog/2010/02/rank-amateur.html
Making a distinction between professional and amateur in science is artificial: what matters is the 'what' of science not the 'who'. And amateurs have by their very nature something that professionals don't need to have: passion.

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wonderboy
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Re: Participate in any of the below research topics

Post by wonderboy » Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:36 am

Brilliant! I'm an absolute amateur when it comes to science, but even fully fledged scientists were amateurs at some point. Everyone needs passion to excel in a field.
"I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark" Muhammad Ali, faster than the speed of light?

MeteorWayne
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Re: Participate in any of the below research topics

Post by MeteorWayne » Wed May 18, 2011 11:40 pm

The majority of long term data about meteor showers (which come from comets) is from amateurs.

To begin the process of learning how to report what you observe, I suggest the North American Meteor Network site:

http://www.namnmeteors.org/

Once you learn the basics, then you can report your observations directly to the International Meteor Organization:

http://www.imo.net/

If anyone needs any advice during the learning process, feel free to contact me. I have hundreds of hours of observing time, and thousands of meteors in my database.

While video data is increasingly valuable, it always needs to be calibrated against the decades long visual record to correlate the two.

MW

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Re: Participate in any of the below research topics

Post by MeteorWayne » Wed May 18, 2011 11:44 pm

Well, I appear to be on a buttered roll, so here's another citizen science project, CoCoRaHS. All you need to do is set up an inexpensive rain gauge in your yard, and read it daily.

http://www.cocorahs.org/

It is EXTREMELY valuable in forecasting flooding, drought, etc. The NWS and State Climatologists use the data every day.

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Chris Peterson
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Re: Participate in any of the below research topics

Post by Chris Peterson » Thu May 19, 2011 12:19 am

MeteorWayne wrote:While video data is increasingly valuable, it always needs to be calibrated against the decades long visual record to correlate the two.
Video and radar meteor data now outnumber visual data. For the last few years, it is the visual record that has been calibrated and corrected against instrumental data, not the other way around. (I don't mean to suggest that visual observations aren't still valuable.)
Chris

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Re: Participate in any of the below research topics

Post by ElenoreWinstead » Mon Aug 23, 2021 8:02 pm

wonderboys wrote: Mon Jun 03, 2295 1:36 am Brilliant! I'm an absolute amateur when it comes to science, but even fully fledged scientists were amateurs at some point. Everyone needs passion to excel in a field.

I had been thinking about reading The Martian ever since I watched the movie and finally I read it.

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