(meteorobs) Taurids 2005

[Paul Martsching]

Several years ago I had a lot of work redoing my Taurid meteor summaries after the changes in the beginning dates, ending dates, and the decision to not consider the Antihelions to be active during the many weeks of Taurid activity.  At least now at the beginning of the Taurid period we can assume STA and toward the end we can assume NTA, and in between we struggle to assign meteors to one or the other.  In my summary I have STA's and NTA's lumped together, as I think reliably separating them visually is impossible.  I have a chronological log of bright Taurids (mag - 5 or brighter) in which I attempt to assign individual meteors to STA or NTA.  

2005 is said to have been a Taurid "swarm-year".  At the time I read reports of "super-fireballs", and I went out many nights hoping to see one.  In spite of seeing 168 Taurids that year, the brightest one I saw was only mag - 7.  I did see more than usual mag - 4 and - 5 Taurids compared to many other years.  I was very disappointed.  

A very bright Taurid (mag - 8 or brighter) can occur in any year, whether a "swarm-year" or not.  Sometimes several years have gone by when I have seen no Taurids brighter than mag  - 5 or - 6, even in years with totals of a hundred plus Taurids.  

Paul Martsching in Iowa