(meteorobs) alpha Lyncids on Dec 21?

[Malcolm J. Currie]

Yes I'm on this list.  Sorry that I didn't have time yesterday to
respond.  My recollection was of medium-fast faint meteors, and a
ballpark figure I had in mind when this question arose was 50-55 km/s.

I'm not convinced that the earlier meteors from the Lynx region belong
to the event of 1971 December 20.9.  However, seeing these earlier
meteors had made me more attentive to activity from the region, and one
certainly had to be attentive, as the flurry comprised only faint
meteors.  Given the luminosity function, the bright moonlight, even if
low in the north-west and the big increase of light pollution in the
intervening 36 years will make for challenging observations.  I'd have
to check my files, but the LM was probably around +6.8 that night.

Given only one observer at one epoch, predicting a rate isn't possible.
A ballpark would be 10-30 per hour.  The high population index means the
limiting magnitude will be a big factor if a 1971-type event occurs on
Friday.

When I told Peter Jenniskens about this event, I was surprised that he
could assign a far-comet outburst tag to it and include it in his
papers.  BTW Robert Mackenzie had given them the 38 Lyncid moniker, so
alpha Lyncids didn't ring bells.

After so long I'd be delighted if my uncorroborated observations can be
confirmed.  It's best suited to image-intensified video---the regular
wide-field Mintrons might not go faint enough, although they do cope
well in the presence of strong moonlight---or low-power binocular
observations. For visual observations a good site is essential.  I
recall seeing most of the meteors within 25 degrees of the radiant.
Further from the radiant they'd be hard to detect visually.

Malcolm Currie