(meteorobs) Statistical significance of the Taurid fireballenhancement 2008
Chris Peterson
clp at alumni.caltech.edu
Tue Nov 11 14:53:28 EST 2008
Here are my video observation for 2005-2008, for the dates 1 Nov to 11 Nov.
These have been filtered for NTA and STA. Magnitudes are not corrected for
altitude. Total count is meteors brighter than apparent mag 1.5, fireball
count is for meteors brighter than mag -4.
2005 198 total, 50 fireballs (25%) No moon, no weather
2006 122 total, 24 fireballs (20%) Minor moon, minor weather
2007 136 total, 25 fireballs (18%) No moon, no weather
2008 216 total, 48 fireballs (22%) Major moon, moderate weather
This year's Taurids are showing significantly more video meteor activity
than I've recorded in the past. Subjectively, some of the brightest and most
impressive fireballs I've ever seen were in 2005 and 2008.
Chris
*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel Fischer" <dfischer at astro.uni-bonn.de>
To: <meteorobs at meteorobs.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 10:38 AM
Subject: (meteorobs) Statistical significance of the Taurid
fireballenhancement 2008
> Numerous reports on astronomy websites and even mainstream media
> have claimed in recent days that the number of Taurids seen this
> year is higher than "usual". While www.imo.net has ZHR profiles
> for both Taurid streams and all the individual observers' reports,
> I haven't seen an "obvious" graphical representation of the
> average brightness distribution, esp. compared to other years.
> Or an analysis concluding by how much the distribution is different.
> Thus the level of confirmation of the "swarm year" hypothesis is
> not clear to me.
>
> Daniel
More information about the Meteorobs
mailing list