Leonid MAC home View the shower Mission Brief Science Update Media Brief links		George Varros NASA HQ Last updated: October 2002 E-Mail: gvarros [at] gvarros.com homepage Brief Biographical Information: George Varros, 42, is an experienced visual meteor observer and comet observer. He makes his living as a contractor to NASA HQ, as a computer programmer and analyst. He maintains several web-sites including the Near-Live Leonid Watching System and the Send Your Name to Mars site. Research: His main interests are in fleeting luminous phenomenon including meteors, aurora, sprites, and regular lightning. He is an avid meteor amateur astronomer. He participated in a successful effort to detect Moon Impacts during the 1999 Leonid storm. He observed the 2000 Leonid outbursts from Maryland. Three video frames from a 2001 Leonid meteor Research on Leonid MAC: For the 2001 Leonid campaign, Varros developed a prototype AIM-IT instrument (Meteor Tracker) for rapid pointing and meteor tracking in a project with Peter Gural and Peter Jenniskens. Purpose is to image bright meteors in high resolution, searching for jets and other plasma ejections. During the 2001 Leonids, the instrument will carry a light collection lens with a fiber optic connection to a spectrograph. More details on the instrument can be found here.
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