(meteorobs) The Aurigids in 2007: Jenniskens expects a ZHR of 400+

[Skywayinc at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/19/06 11:26:15 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
verfl.meteors at seznam.cz writes:

<<  on http://astro.cas.cz/nuncius/ you can find the IAU's GA daily newspaper
(okay, that's a bit of  self-propagation, i'm one of the editors:) and in
the 6th issue down there look on the first page - there is an article from
Dr. Jenniskens and Dr. Vaubaillon, approximately equal to Dr. Jenniskens'
yesterday's annoucement.  He also speaks there about his coming book about
meteor showers which shall be available somewhere in september, I think, and
which can probably provide more information on the topic.   >>

Jan -- 

A very interesting article, with very exciting prospects!  

I would, however, like to point out a correction, followed by a question, 
which perhaps Dr. Jenniskens, Jeremie Vaubaillon or Esko Lyytinen might be able 
to answer.  

First . . . the correction.  The article states that next year's Aurigid 
shower will take place three days before a Full Moon occuring @ 02:32 UT on 
September 4.  In reality, the shower will peak nearly four days AFTER a Full Moon 
occurring @10:35 UT on August 28. 

As for the question . . . the orbital period being quoted for Comet Kiess is 
given as ~2,000-years.  However, most reference books (such as Gary Kronk's 
Comets -- A Descriptive Catalog) indicate that the period is closer to 2,500 
years.  I plugged the orbital elements for comet Kiess into an orbital simulator 
on my hard drive (with e = 0.996296) and my computer spit out an orbital 
period of 2508.55 years. 

Then again . . . what's ~500 years among friends?
:)
-- joe rao