(meteorobs) Re: 2005 Draconids

[Pierre Martin]

Hello Jeremie, Mikhail and all,

Thank you for your wonderful work to keep us informed on potential  
upcoming Draconids activity.  This is excellent!


I have long since been fascinated by Draconids due of course to their  
famous history but also the uniqueness of such slow moving meteors.   
There's also some kind of extra special intrigue with elusive meteor  
showers like this one and the June Bootids.

These discussions also bring back memories...

My first encounter with the Draconids happened on the evening of  
October 9, 1993, on casually looking out a window.  I very luckily (and  
unexpectedly) saw a beautiful, persistent, mag -1 meteor slowly descend  
to the north-west.  At first, I didn't pay much attention to the date,  
but then, after a pause, I looked at the path until I realized that it  
radiated from near the head of Draco.  In a casual 30 minutes watch  
that followed outside, no further Draconids were seen.

On the early evening of October 7, 1994, I was caught off-guard when  
four slow moving, short and faint meteors radiated from near the head  
of Draco in the span of only 15 minutes!  Unfortunately, I did not  
begin a formal watch until much later (local midnight).  Draconids were  
absent the remainder of the night under sky LM=5.5.

I was on the wrong side of the planet to see the outburst of 1998  
Draconids, but I managed to observe 5 hours teff under a very clear sky  
on October 8/9.  I witnessed only three potential (probable) Draconids.  
  One of them included a spectacular 20 degrees long mag -1 pure white  
meteor, that was slow and persisted for several long seconds!!  It was  
a meteor that I won't forget anytime soon!

I failed to see any signs of Draconids in the years 1999-2003 (at least  
for this longitude).  But in October 2004, I recorded one Draconid per  
session, over the course of three nights of recording near expected  
maximum.

Even if a storm is not predicted this year, it will be very interesting  
to find out if some kind of small level activity is seen from the  
diffuse cloud.

Clear skies!

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario


On 25-Jan-05, at 1:53 PM, Jeremie VAUBAILLON wrote:

> Hi Folks!
>
> Looks like there are lots of discussion about the Draconids now ;-)
>
> Let's have a look at different encounters at:
>
> http://www.imcce.fr/page.php?nav=en/ephemerides/phenomenes/meteor/ 
> shower.php?shw=Draconids
>
> Enjoy!
>
> Jeremie
>
>
> -- 
> ************************************************************
> * Jeremie VAUBAILLON
> * Dept. of Physics & Astronomy
> * University of Western Ontario
> * London, Ontario
> * N6A 3K7
> * CANADA
> ************************************************************
> * tel : +1 519-661-2111--87985
> * fax : +1 519-661-4085
> * URL : www.imcce.fr/~vaubaill/
> ************************************************************
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