(meteorobs) Question about radiant drift

bgarcing bgarcing at yahoo.com
Mon Jun 7 04:24:52 EDT 2004


Hi Bob and Wayne,

I tried plotting the longitude of the radiant against the ecliptic 
longitude of the sun (which is readily available using different 
software), and it still does not move at exactly 1 degree per degree 
of sol.

Also, theory says that the ecliptic latitude of the radiant should be 
constant, but the data from the tables show that the latitude also 
changes.

What are the factors that affect these? And how to compute these 
factors using elements unique to each stream? Thanks and clear skies.

Bamm

--- In meteorobs at yahoogroups.com, Wayne T Hally <meteors at e...> wrote:
> No it is not exact, for 2 reasons. First, the geaocentric ("earth 
> centered") position in the sky is a vector combination of the 
meteor 
> stream's path and velocity, and our own path own around the sun. 
And even 
> that in fact is not constant; for example we move faster near 
perihelion in 
> January, and slowest in July when we are furthest from the sun, and 
the 
> earth's orbit is an ellipse, not a perfect circle. So there is not 
1 degree 
> of solar longitude per day exactly.
> 
> Wayne




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