(meteorobs) lambda Orionid activity

Bill Godley wwgj180 at yahoo.com
Tue Nov 20 10:03:13 EST 2007


Bruce,

On the morning of the 18th and 19th I also noticed a few meteors that moved SE from N. Orion.  Tight white points that were rather slow and easy to see as they were dead in my primary FOV.

Paths seemed long enough that I extended them back all the way to the IAU radiant but in retrospect I think one or more could have been LORs as these radiants line up pretty well with the observed meteors.


----- Original Message ----
From: Bruce McCurdy <bmccurdy at telusplanet.net>
To: Global Meteor Observing Forum <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 8:08:27 PM
Subject: (meteorobs) lambda Orionid activity

Had a good four-hour stint this morning (Nov. 19) catching some late Leonids and later Taurids. I will file a proper report once I transcribe my taped notes.

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
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