(meteorobs) South Delta Aquarids - what is known?

Lewis J. Gramer lgramer at upstream.net
Fri Jul 2 20:44:26 EDT 2004


As we all get excited about the Perseids coming in another
five to six weeks, I was wondering about another interesting
"major" meteor shower which will be peaking first: the South
Delta Aquarids or "SDAs", whose max. is at the end of July.

The predicted peak ZHR for the SDAs on 27-28 July is a hefty
20 meteors - though of course that rate will be much reduced
for observers in more northerly observing locations, or for
those without dark skies. And of course, dark skies will be
hard to come by, a mere 3-4 days before Full Moon this year!

Still, I wanted to poll our readers, to find out what is
known - and what might merely be guessed - about the SDAs.

Is anyone aware of any papers suggesting parent bodies for
this shower? Gary Kronk's site mentions that Whipple had
suggested it may share a parent body with the Quadrantids
of January... Do some of the recent papers published on the
subject of the QUAs parent, also shed any light on what
might have spawned the SDAs?

A closely related question (and one which well actually
depend on knowing all the orbital elements of a parent):
has anyone attempted to create a model which would be
capable of predicting outbursts from the SDAs?

Have any outbursts or significant enhancements been seen
in the SDAs, from reliable observers? During which years,
and at what times, did these past outbursts occur?

I'd be quite interested to hear from our theoreticians on
'meteorobs' about this often-overlooked shower - as well as
any stories from our long-experienced observers about them!

Clear skies,
Lew Gramer





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