(meteorobs) NAMN Notes: June 2005

Sun May 29 18:56:42 EDT 2005

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NAMN Notes:  June 2005
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Introduction:
NAMN Notes is a monthly newsletter produced by the North American Meteor
Network, and is available both via email, and on the NAMN website at:
http://www.namnmeteors.org

Contents:

1.  June Bootids - A Surprise?...
2.  Other June Showers...
3.  Upcoming Meetings...
4.  For more info...

1.  June Bootids - A Surprise?...

Welcome to June!  Summer is almost upon us, and this month brings the
possibility of a meteor surprise for our early summer nights.

The June Bootids (JBO) reach a peak on June 27, with an estimated peak time
within 6 hours of 8h UT according to the IMO, the International Meteor
Organization.

These meteors are debris from Comet 7P/Pons-Winnecke. The comet was
discovered from Marseilles, France on June 12, 1819 by the famous comet
hunter Jean Louis Pons. It was accidentally rediscovered on March 9th, 1858
by Friedrich August Theodor Winnecke of Bonn, Germany. Both names were used
for the comet. According to Gary Kronk, in his book 'Comets - A Descriptive
Catalog':

"Johann Encke took special interest in the calculation of this comet's
orbit - primarily because of his earliest calculation of an orbital period
of just 2.3 years. He set out to calculate a definitive orbit to enable a
future recovery and then obtained a period of 5.62 years. Despite Encke's
thoroughness, his orbit did not allow a recovery at later returns and Comet
Pons was considered lost... Orbital calculations not long after
<Winnecke's> discovery indicated a possible relationship with Comet
Pons...by the time the comet was last observed the comets were proved to be
identical."

The June Bootids, debris from Comet Pons-Winnecke, can be observed from
about June 26th until July 2nd. The ZHR rate for this meteor shower is
classed as variable. What is ZHR? This stands for Zenithal Hourly Rate,
and is the number of meteors that an observer would expect to see in an
hour, on average, if they are out under a dark country sky, and if the
radiant, the area in the sky where the meteors seem to come from, is
directly overhead.

In 1998, there was an outburst with ZHR rates ranging from 50 to over 100
meteors per hour visible for over half a day. Will we get a surprise this
year? We don't know. We need your observations this year in order to find
out! Please try to make an effort to check out this shower for us and send
us your meteor reports. Details on what to record are listed later in this
month's newsletter.

The June Bootids are nice slow meteors with a velocity of about 18 km per
second - so will be very distinctive. Even for novice observers, these
meteors will stay visible long enough to make an impression.

The radiant at maximum will be at 224 degrees, ie. RA 14h 55.8m, Dec +48,
which is about 8 degrees north of the star beta Bootes, the star known as
Nekkar. To see a map of this radiant, check out
http://www.imo.net/calendar/cal04.html#June-Bootids. For star charts to
help you in identifying constellations and estimating the brightness of the
meteors you see, go to http://www.namnmeteors.org/charts.html, set your
printer to 'landscape' mode, and print yourself off a set of our 4 NAMN star
charts to take out observing with you.

If you want to record data on this shower for the meteor researchers,
check out our NAMN Observing Guide for information on what to record. Our
Guide can be found at http://www.namnmeteors.org/guide.html. We record such
info as the time a meteor occurred, its magnitude (brightness), the shower
it belongs to, its speed, and other comments such as train left behind, or
color.  General information to record includes such things as how dark your
perceived sky is (limiting magnitude) and comments on weather and cloud
cover.  If you have any questions, drop a note to our NAMN Coordinator at
meteors at comcast.net

Forms to record your observations can be found at
http://www.namnmeteors.org/namn_form.html and
http://www.namnmeteors.org/appendixC.html.

2.  Other June Showers...

The Sagittarids (SAG) started to become active about April 15th and will
last through until about July 15th. These are almost slow meteors at about
30 km per second. ZHR rates are about 5 meteors per hour. Coordinates for
the radiant in June are as follows:

June 10   265   -23  ie. RA 17h 40.2m  Dec -23
June 15   270   -23  ie. RA 18h 00.0m    Dec -23
June 20   275   -23  ie. RA 18h 19.8m  Dec -23
June 25   280   -23  ie. RA 18h 40.2m  Dec -23
June 30   284   -23  ie. RA 18h 55.8m  Dec -23

Fireballs have been associated with the Sagittarids - so stay alert!

The June Lyrids, although not on the IMO "Working List of Visual Meteor
Showers" this year, are worth monitoring. They are visible from about June
11th to 21st with a possible maximum on June 16th. The radiant is at 278
degrees, ie. RA 18h 31.8m, Dec +35. The meteors have an average magnitude
of about 3. A map showing the radiant can be found at
http://www.imo.net/calendar/cal04.html#June-Lyrids. These are almost slow
meteors with a velocity of about 31 km per second. More information on
this shower, and other minor showers, can be found on Gary Kronk's 'Comets &
Meteor Showers' website at http://comets.amsmeteors.org

Besides June's main activity and other minor showers, there is also
sporadic meteor activity - about 7 meteors per hour, visible to the unaided
eye. Some of these are random and some belong to old untraceable meteor
showers.

For radio meteor observers, daylight shower peak times are as follows:
Arietids        June  7  10h UT
zeta Perseids   June  9  10h UT
beta Taurids    June 28   9h UT
According to the IMO "the Arietid and zeta-Perseid maxima tend to blend
into one another, producing a strong radio signature for several days in
early June. There are indications these two shower maxima now each occur
up to a day later than indicated here too." For more information on radio
observing, check out the IMO website at http://www.imo.net

Planets at midmonth, and their magnitudes, for northern observers, are:
Venus      -3.8  low in west-northwest in evening twilight
Jupiter    -2.2  in Virgo
Mercury    -1.3  low in west-northwest in evening twilight
Saturn      0.2  in Gemini
Mars        0.2  in Pisces
For a sky chart showing the positions of all the planets visible this month,
go to http://www.heavens-above.com, select your country, then your city, and
go to 'Whole Sky Chart'.

On June 16th, Jupiter will be 0.4 degrees north of the moon for northern
observers and an occultation by the moon will be visible for observers in
Indonesia, the Philippines, northern Australia, Fiji, West Samoa, and New
Zealand except for the southern tip. On June 20th, the bright star Antares
will be 0.7 degrees south of the moon for northern observers, with an
occultation visible from southeast Europe, most of the Arabian Peninsula,
southern and central Asia, and the northern Philippines.

Some other interesting close encounters in June are:
June  5  Venus   0.06 degrees north of M35
June 25  Venus   1.3 degrees north of Saturn
June 26  Mercury 1.4 degrees north of Saturn
June 27  Mercury 0.08 degrees south of Venus
           (minimum separation 0.06 degrees at 16h UT)
While you're out meteor observing take a look at some of these! The
planets are very useful in estimating the magnitude of brighter meteors.

Lastly, the phases of the moon for June are as follows:
Mon.  June  6     new moon
Wed.  June 15     first quarter
Wed.  June 22     full moon
Tues. June 28     last quarter
For a great printout of moon phases for the month, check out
http://stardate.org/nightsky/moon

3.  Upcoming Meetings...

August 7-12, 2005, Brazil...
ACM 2005, the IAU Symposium 229:  Asteroids, Comets, Meteors, will be held
in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The main topics of the conference will be space
missions, internal structure of asteroids and comets, connections between
asteroids, cometary nuclei and Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNO's), connections
between asteroids and meteorites, connections between comets, meteor showers
and interplanetary dust, minor body dynamics, collisions and impacts,
Near-Earth Objects (NEO's), origin and evolution of our Solar System and
extra-solar planetary systems. The website for the conference is at
http://www.on.br/acm2005. For more information, contact Daniela Lazzaro or
Fernando Roig at acm2005 at on.br

September 10-14, 2005, Belgium...
'Radio Meteor School 2005' will be held in Oostmalle, Belgium. This will be
a five day tutorial on the physical and mathematical theory of radio meteor
observations, given by Dr. Oleg Belkovich of Russia. This workshop is for
serious radio meteor observers. The cost for the workshop is about 150
Euros. You must register before July 1st. For more information, check out
the IMO website at http://www.imo.net/imc2005/radioschool.php and contact
the organizers at imc2005 at imo.net

September 15-18, 2005, Belgium...
The 2005 IMC, International Meteor Conference of the IMO, the International
Meteor Organization, will be held in Oostmalle, Belgium. Oostmalle is about
70 km north of Brussels, and about 30 km northeast of Antwerp. The
conference is being organized by Urania, the public observatory of Antwerp.
Accommodation will be at the Provinciaal Vormingscentrum Malle, with an
excursion to the city of Lier. This is a great opportunity to meet and
chat with meteor observers from all around the globe - so mark it on your
calendar now, and plan to attend! The participation fee is 120 EUR before
July 1st (130 EUR after), and includes all accommodation, all meals, and the
conference registration. Financial assistance is available in some cases.
There will be a guest lecture by Prof. Dr. Philippe Claeys on meteorite
impacts. For information on the conference, check out
http://www.imo.net/imc2005. For questions, contact Jan Verbert at
imc2005 at imo.net

For information on upcoming astronomy meetings, see: "International
Astronomy Meetings List" at http://cadcwww.hia.nrc.ca/meetings

4.  For more info...

NAMN email: namn at namnmeteors.org
NAMN website: http://www.namnmeteors.org

Mark Davis, meteors at comcast.net
Goose Creek, South Carolina, USA
Coordinator, North American Meteor Network

Cathy Hall, chall at cyberus.ca
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Writer, NAMN Notes

Lew Gramer, dedalus at alum.mit.edu
Medford, Massachusetts, USA
Coordinator, Public Outreach
Owner/Moderator, 'MeteorObs'

Kevin Kilkenny, namnfireball at earthlink.net
Staten Island, New York, USA
Coordinator, Fireballs and Meteorites

Back issues of NAMN Notes can be found online at the NAMN website and in
the MeteorObs archives at:
http://www.meteorobs.org by selecting 'Browse Archive by Month'

To subscribe to the meteor email list:
Contact Lew Gramer at: dedalus at alum.mit.edu

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Here's to 'Clear Skies' for June...

June 2005 NAMN Notes
written by Cathy Hall & edited by Mark Davis
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