(meteorobs) Asymmetric Geminids

[Roberto G.]

From: "Bruce McCurdy" <bmccurdy at telusplanet.net>
To: "Global Meteor Observing Forum" <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2005 1:54 AM
Subject: (meteorobs) Asymmetric Geminids


CUT

Sorry for the bad English.

>     It's like the Geminids slowly climbed to the peak and then fell off a
> cliff. And this isn't the first time. In 2003 I had quite similar results;
> the numbers are higher due to my using the more painstaking visual count,
> but again they are self-consistent under good reception conditions:

This it known from many years

>     So in both cases the number of hits were reduced by a factor of about
> five from the 14th to the 15th, and were lower on the 15th than they had
> been on the 11th.

I remember a year that I observed 2 days after the maximum and in the entire
night I not saw one Geminid and a friend that was observing with me he saw
only a Geminid.
All meteor observers must remember that if they observe Geminids after
the peak they shall see only a very little number of meteors.

>     My understanding of the physics of this situation is, shall we say,
> "incomplete", but I understand the debris trail of 3200 Phaethon is
> asymmetric for physical reasons and there are fewer, but larger, particles
> after the peak. (Would this be analogous to the fall ellipse of a
fragmented
> meteorite? A few big chunks at one end, a bunch of smaller ones nearer the
> other.)

Yes, there are two different effects but the result it's similar.
I think that sometime, very sometime, it must to fall too
a meteorite, but this is at today only hypothetical, if occured
we can to have material for to know as Phaeton is make,
then if a very big bolid should occur in the next years from
Geminids it should be very important to can triangulate
the data for to find possible meteorites, the density of
Geminid can, but not necessary, support that Phaeton has
too stone materials.

CUT

>     Thus my conclusion: "if you're going to observe Geminids on an
off-peak
> night, try to make sure it's *before* the peak."
>
>     Bruce

I agree with this.
Roberto Gorelli