(meteorobs) Quick Perseid 'Clump' Observation

Skywayinc at aol.com Skywayinc at aol.com
Fri Aug 13 10:18:18 EDT 2010



 
In a message dated 8/13/2010 5:08:50 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
gldsktr at aol.com writes:
 
Peak night. As witnessed in past years, the Persieds once again,  seemed to 
appear in "clumps." 
There would be a few minutes of nothing, then  1,2,3 in a row. I've noticed 
this trend in recent years. I don't remember  behavior like that in years 
past.
Has anyone else noticed  this?

 
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Yes . . . the "clumping effect" has been a characteristic of the  Perseids 
for many years.  In fact, if you have access to the November 1970  Sky & 
Telescope, you will find an interesting experiment used for that  year's 
Perseid shower in which an attempt was made using a statistical  probability 
formula to determine whether Perseids indeed appear in clumps  (followed by a 
lull) or whether by random.
 
-- joe rao




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