(meteorobs) Heads up for possible Phoenicid outbreak in a few minutes!

[Thomas Ashcraft]

Dec 01 2014  :  2326 UT

Heads up if you are in a favorable location!

The *December Phoenicids (PHO)* are a periodic shower that rarely 
produces noticeable activity. The only impressive display produced so 
far by this shower occurred in 1956 when ZHR's were near 100. There is 
the possibility that in 2014, that the Earth may encounter strong 
activity from the Phoenicids. A prediction by Mikiya Sato and Junichi 
Watanabe indicates the the Earth will pass through several dust trails 
of asteroid 2003 WY25 (formally comet D/1819 W1 Blanpain) between the 
hours of *23:30 December 1 and 01:30 December 2 Universal Time*. This 2 
hour bracket of time favors much of the populated regions of the world 
except those bordering the Pacific Ocean and eastern Asia. The most 
favorable locations are South America and Africa where the radiant lies 
high in the sky at the time of the expected maximum activity.  Normally 
the Phoenicid radiant lies far to the south in the constellation of 
Phoenix. The radiant position for this outburst is actually located 
further north at 00:32 (020) -27. This position lies in northern 
Sculptor, 10 degrees southwest of the 2nd magnitude star known as Diphda 
(Beta Ceti).  At only 10 km/sec. the Phoenicids produce extremely slow 
meteors.
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