(meteorobs) Re: The Moon and Meteors

[David Entwistle]

In message <4519593F.4030307 at imcce.fr>, vaubaill <vaubaill at imcce.fr>
writes
>Hi David,
>
>I am not sure exactly why the Moon should be a problem if sitting close 
>to the radiant, since we rarely observe towards the radiant, but rather 
>~45deg off of it.
>The Moon can also change the orbit of the meteoroids but I suspect the 
>change is not that impotant because of the relative low mass of our 
>satellite.
>
>Jeremie
>
>
Hello Jeremie and all,

Thanks for the reply.

I was considering the occurrence more as an opportunity than a problem.
Wondering if useful information, about a shower radiant, could be
obtained by observing the Moon's passage across the radiant. 

Moonlight isn't a problem for meteor observation using radio techniques.
I'm not clear about the physics, but can imagine the 'hole' in the
meteoroids stream trailing behind the Moon. Given the right geometry,
the Earth would pass across this 'hole'. Under these circumstances a
radio observer may see a fall in counts associated with the shower?

My instincts tell me that these circumstances correspond with the Moon
appearing close to the shower radiant in the observer's sky and the
precise circumstances would be modified by the time taken for the
meteoroids to travel the distance from the Moon to the Earth. But it
wouldn't be the first time that my instincts have been wrong when
considering the shower radiant geometry. 

A diffuse radiant and the gravity of the Moon would surely blur the
effect, but would an observer still expect to see an effect?

-- 
David Entwistle