(meteorobs) Heads Up: Aurigid Meteor Shower

[Bill Godley]

Thanks, Mark.  I was just thinking earlier today about asking if anyone was going to watch this year.  I will be out if the weather is cooperative. 



----- Original Message ----
From: "meteors at comcast.net" <meteors at comcast.net>
To: MeteorObs <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2008 4:41:39 PM
Subject: (meteorobs) Heads Up: Aurigid Meteor Shower

This coming weekend should be a good one as far as the moon goes, so
thought I would give everybody a reminder about the Alpha Aurigids which
are expected to peak on August 31st. This may be a shower you haven’t
heard about since they sort of live in the shadow of the Perseids, but
they do produce enough activity to keep the morning interesting.
Enhanced activity from this radiant is not unheard of, but this year,
we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. Here is the poop on this
shower:

Shower: Alpha Aurigids (AUR)
Activity: August 25 to September 8
Peak: August 31
ZHR: 7
Radiant: 05h36m +42  or if you prefer: 84o +42o
Velocity: 66 km/s (this is pretty quick, and a little faster than the
Perseids if you saw them)

You may hear something about some other nearby radiants that may cause
new observers some confusion (to make matters worse, one is another
Aurigid shower). For now, I would just ignore these other ones,
especially this weekend, as neither one is active for several days
beyond the weekend. You can expect to see some more coverage on these
showers in the next issue of our newsletter.

For this weekend though, if you’re new to meteor observing, why not give
it a try. Your reports can be sent to me directly or to our meteor
mailing list. This is also a good time to pose some questions, as things
are a little quieter now that the Perseids aren’t lighting the skies up.

As usual, email me if you need forms, charts or help getting started.

-Mark


-- 
Mark Davis, South Carolina, USA
meteors at comcast.net
namn at namnmeteors.org

North American Meteor Network
http://www.namnmeteors.org

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