(meteorobs) Early January Meteor Shower?

[David Seargent]

Dear all,
 
I hope that someone on this list might be able to shed light on, what is for me, a long standing mystery!
Once upon a time when I was young (January 1, 1971 actually) I was entertaining a couple of friends by showing them the "usual suspects" through my telescope when our attention was arrested by a beautiful meteor of magnitude -1 or -2 travelling northward almost overhead. No sooner had this faded out than another - this time faint - meteor fell in the south-west having a trajectory roughly perpendicular to the extended path of the first. I remarked that "there must be a meteor shower" in progress and kept looking in the region of sky for a further couple of minutes when another faint meteor, also apparently radiating from the same general area of sky, rewarded our attention. Concluding that a shower of (mainly very faint) meteors must be in progress, but with a list of telescopic objects on the night's menu, we went back to the telescope. Nevertheless, over the next hour or thereabouts, we paused several times to "see if the meteors are still coming" and, each time, needed only to look for two or three minutes before seeing another faint one, all apparently coming from the same source. From the (short) length of time needed to spot one, I assumed that this shower was quite active, with a ZHR of around 20 or so. Altogether, we counted 7 meteors during these rather cursory glances. Assuming that the shower was a known one, I did not try to determine a radiant per se, although noting that the meteors appeared to be issuing from around Hydrus or Toucan or near the boundary of these constellations. All of the meteors, except the first, were small and faint (about mag. 4.5 - 5) and were without trail or spark train. The initial one seemed different and may not have been associated, although its trajectory was broadly similar.
During the following days I contacted some meteor observers to find out more about the shower, and was surprised to find that no shower from that area at that date was known. I even telephoned the State Observatory in Sydney, but once again nothing was known of a shower. I observed the region on the following night, but saw nothing. The following year, I looked again on the same date, but no meteors. I have looked once or twice over the years but have not noticed any activity from that region. Needless to say, I have searched several apparently comprehensive catalogues of meteor showers, but found nothing listed!
I have since attempted a *VERY APPROXIMATE* derivation of the radiant and arrived at 
 
RA = 20 degrees,  Dec. = -65 degrees 
 
Recently, I looked up the list of theoretical radiants for meteors from long-period comets given by J. Drummond (Icarus 1981) and found an entry for C/1920 X1 (Skjellerup) [= 1920 III]  on January 2 at,
 
RA = 20 degrees, Dec. = -63 degrees.
 
This looks pretty impressive, but Drummond gives the predicted Vg as just 16 kms/sec. As I recall, the faint meteors seemed rather swift, although perhaps their short paths and brief duration has confused my memory into thinking that they were faster than in actual fact. After all, it was a long time ago! (The bright meteor was, however, slow. Ironically, that is the one I have most suspected as being a random sporadic!)
I am about 70% convinced that the shower was real, although I am less secure about the accuracy of the radiant co-ordinates  and, in any case, suspect that the radiant was likely quite diffuse. It does seem strange that a shower of that strength was not reported, but there are some reasons why it might have been missed. The radiant was very far south, the meteors were faint and the event occurred in the middle of the holiday season - the very next evening following New Year's Eve celebrations! Moreover, the lack of activity on the following night implies short duration. Maybe this was a very brief outburst and I was simply in the right place at the right time.
Does any member of this list have any information regarding possible activity in that region during late December or early January, or even information about any other theoretical radiants in that part of the sky around that time? Any feedback would be most welcome.
Clear skies,
David Seargent
 		 	   		  
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