(meteorobs) Mystery Meteors

[lunro.imo.usa at cox.net]

Kenneth,

Thanks for reminding me that our shower page is a bit behind. It is now updated and includes the Andromedids(http://www.amsmeteors.org/showers.html) . The Andromedids were included in my weekly meteor activity outlook posted here last Thursday. I believe the positions listed on Meteor Showers Online is a bit outdated. Using the latest results from video data, last night the center of the Andromedid radiant would have been located at 22.2 +28.9 This position lies in northeastern Pisces, five degrees west of the third magnitude star Alpha Trianguli. The radaint drift is +0.2 in RA and +0.86 in DEC. The radiant is large so the activity you witnessed may still be possible Andromedids. Four shower members in an hours time is unlikely but certainly not an impossibility. My intensified video camera ran for six hours last night and only recorded two possible members from this shower.

Clear Skies!

Robert Lunsford
 

 
---- Kenneth Drake <kdrako at cebridge.net> wrote: 
> In the space of about an hour last night (3-4UT Nov 9), from our back 
> yard north of Houston, my wife and I noticed four magnitude 2ish slow 
> meteors that appeared to track back to an area near Nu Andromedae. At 
> Meteor Showers Online I read that the current radiant of the Andromidids 
> is RA=26 deg, DEC=+37 deg which is inside a 10 degree radius of my 
> estimate. I do not even see them listed at the AMS Showers page. Could 
> the 4 we saw be fragments from the late comet Biela?
> 
> Kenneth Drake
> Willis, Texas