(meteorobs) lambda Orionid activity

[Roberto G.]

From: "Bruce McCurdy" <bmccurdy at telusplanet.net>

cut

>However I thought I should alert the list to some unexpected activity from 
>the
>lambda Orionid radiant last night. More than a week before maximum I wasn't
>expecting much if anything from this radiant based on Bob Lunsford's words:

>Video data has also shown that activity from northern Orion begin appearing
>on November 17 from a radiant located at 5:28 (082) +15. This position lies
>five degrees north of third magnitude Lambda Orionis. Current rates would 
>be
>low, most likely less than one per hour. These meteors are best seen near
>0200 Local Standard Time (LST) when the radiant culminates on the meridian.
>Maximum activity occurs on the 28th. At 42 km/sec. the Lambda Orionids
>produce meteors of average velocity.

>When I did spot one at 09:21 UT (2:21 local time, with Orion on the 
>meridian
>and the radiant due south, about 50° altitude), I thought I was lucky. Well 
>to
>my surprise there was a second within 20 seconds, and within 15 minutes I 
>had
>no fewer than six. All were very close to the radiant, therefore slow and 
>very
>difficult to mistake. They all seemed to be dropping down and around or 
>into Orion.

>Then about an hour later there was a second, very brief burst when I saw 
>three more
>lambda Orionids with one minute! The last two of these were about a second 
>apart,
>both fairly nearly point meteors, dropping one on each side of the three 
>dim stars
>(including lambda itself) that constitute Orion's head. I was once again 
>startled to
>say the least.

>Later I saw two "single" LORs, only the last of which was moving in an 
>"upward"
>direction (into Taurus).

>As I recall the 9 meteors in the two bursts ranged in magnitude from about 
>0 to +4
>and were mostly very white. Once I transcribe my tapes I will have more 
>specific
>data about LOR. :) But first I thought I should provide a bit of a 
>heads-up, just in
>case there's more to it than just a little ripple of activity for a single 
>lucky observer.
>
>Bruce

Hello Bruce,

I'm very interested on your observation because some year ago (1993) I wrote
an article on an unknown meteor shower that occured the 19th November 1630
(yes, 1630), the article (in Italian) can to be download from

http://meteore.uai.it/gorelli93/1.gif

http://meteore.uai.it/gorelli93/2.gif

an other article was published in English in 1991 in WGN, Journal of the IMO
19, 47-50 (The Meteor Shower of November 19, 1630). The date and the
radiant are very similar with your radiant. If other peoples saw this 
meteors,
too in the past years, it shall be very usefull if they send their data to 
IMO or
AMS.
Best greetings.
Roberto Gorelli