(meteorobs) Draconids 1933 eyewitness account

[Geert Barentsen]

Hi all,

Below is a full transcript of an eyewitness account of the 1933
Draconids storm, as observed by Rev. W. F. A. Ellison (former Director
of Armagh Observatory). It was published in the Belfast Telegraph on
Wednesday, October 11, 1933 (Page 7). We found a copy of this
newspaper in the archive of Armagh.

I thought I'd share this with the world because the account is very
detailed, and I could not find a copy of this available on the
Internet. There are two things which struck me:
1) Ellison described seeing a number of bright fireballs ("fireballs
as bright as Venus or Jupiter, and occasionally much brighter,
appeared in a momentary splendour");
2) the poor man was called inside for dinner by his wife during the storm!

Good luck to all tomorrow :-)
Geert


--- Headline:

METEORS' DISPLAY.
GREATEST OF CENTURY.
SPEED IS THEIR UNDOING.

--- Text:

SMOTHERED IN UPPER AIR.

The heavens sprang a surprise on us, on Monday night, in the shape of
a really great meteoric
shower, by far the greatest of the present century (writes Rev. W. F.
A. Ellison, of Armagh
Observatory). Not the least surprising thing was that it was one of
the minor showers which
suddenly sprang into unexpected activity.

Meteoric astronomy has been very much under a cloud for a long time.
The great Leonid shower, which
provided such sensational displays in 1833 and 1866, failed altogether
to put in an appearance
when due in 1899. The Andromedids also seem to have petered out,
little or nothing having been seen
of them since 1904. Last year we watched the heavens on November 15
and 16, hopefully, but in vain,
for some sign of the truant Leonids. There still remains the
possibility that the missing stream
may turn up next month, on the 15th or 16th. In the meantime, when we
were expecting nothing, out
of the void came a totally unlooked for display of fireworks.

Monday evening, after a stormy and wet day, was fine and clear. Just
before 7 p.m. I noticed a
brilliant meteor drop from the constellation Lyra towards the
South-Western horizon, and made a
mental note of time and direction. Five minutes later I counted a
dozen meteors during the few
minutes occupied in walking up the 180 yards of the Observatory
avenue. It was evident that
something unusual was in progress, and I proceeded to don an overcoat
and muffler and repair to the
flat roof of the house to watch and count. Between 7 an 7-35 p.m. I
counted 300 meteors. The
majority were small objects of the 3rd and 4th magnitudes, but
brighter ones were frequent, and
occasionally there were brilliant flashing fireballs which lighted up
the landscape like sheet
lightning. One such dropped across the tail of the Great Bear, another
threaded the whole length
of the Sword of Perseus, while a third cut across the Western side of
the Great Square of Pegasus.


REALLY GREAT STORM.

Called indoors for the evening meal at 7-35, I was out again at 7-58.
Then it was apparent that a
really great meteoric storm was in progress. I counted 200 meteors in
two minutes, and then
counting became impossible. The fire-stars became as thick as the
flakes of a snowstorm. Instead of
twos and threes they came in flocks and gusts. The sky was thick with
them wherever one looked.
On such an occasion the determination of the radiant, an important
observation, becomes easy. One
has only to watch the neigbourhood in which the radiant is assumed to
be, and severeal meteors are
sure to be seen coming "head on" or nearly so; just little to right or
left, up or down, and by
means of these the radiant can be fixed very closesly indeed. AS a
matter of fact, the radiant on
Monday did not appear to be a point, but a small circular area, the
3rd magnitude star Xi Draconis
being just within its Northern boundary.

Little is known of this Beta Draconids radiant, except that it has
produced a few meteors on the
date October 9. No great shower has been observed to emanate from it
in the past, so that the event
of this week is a complete surprise. Such an event is, of course, a
possibility with any known
radiant, and even with an unknown one. There is nothing to prevent a
previously unknown stream of
meteoric bodies, of which there must be millions, undergoing a change,
through the attraction of
some planet, which will bring it athwart the orbit of the Earth. Some
comet is probably associated
with all such streams, but in most cases it is a small one, and may
escape observation altogether.
This, I believe, is the case with the comet associated with the Beta
Draconids, for I have never
heard of one being observed.


FIREBALLS OBSERVED.

The maximum of the shower was between 8 and 8-20 p.m. on Monday, but
it continued intense for
another half hour, and droppings from the shower went on till 10 p.m.,
and later. Many very
beautiful objects were observed; fireballs as bright as Venus or
Jupiter, and occasionally much
brighter, appeared in a momentary splendour. These exceptional objects
had long luminous trains
which lasted for a few seconds after the meteor had vanished. Also the
character of their light was
very bright, diamond-like, and sparkling. It reminded the observer of
the light given by burning
iron filings in oxygen. Probably the meteors were actually of iron. An
alloy of iron with a
proportion of nickel is the commonest material met with in those
meteorites which have reached the
ground, which are named "siderites," to distinguish them from other
stony or earthy ones.

What a bombardment the light air of our atmosphere saved us from on an
occasion such as this. Let
it be realised that each of the "falling stars" which sparkled to
their extinction on the
background of the starry heavens on Monday night was a lump of iron,
weighing anything from a few
ounces to several pounds that they were travelling at a speed of 30
miles per second, or sixty
times as fast a ride bullet: and that those which flashed out close to
the radiant were coming head
on straight for the observer; and we may form an idea of the barrage
which was smothered in the
cushion of the upper air, and prevented from dealing destruction to a
whole hemisphere of the Earth.

The very speed of the meteors is their undoing. It is only the slow
moving ones which ever reach
the ground. You dive into the water from a few feet of height and
experience nothing but
pleasurable sensations. But if you tried a dive from a hundred feet
the water would smash you as
surely as if it were a concrete floor. And so does the atmosphere
smash these formidable missiles,
just by reason of their excessive speed. Instead of a deadly menace
they provide only a splendid,
if rare, sight for the inhabitants of the bottom of our atmospheric ocean.

-- END