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(meteorobs) QUERY: Completely describing meteoroid streams?
This query is a little theoretical, but has some practical implications for me:
What is the minimal data set which is required to COMPLETELY describe the
relevant information about a meteoroid stream. Assume that you wanted to display
graphically both the orbit of the stream relative to the solar system, and the
changing position (and size and geometry!) of the shower-radiant in the sky at
any time during its active period? Also, you'd of course want some information
about heliocentric velocity, magnitude distribution, color distribution (even if
that's not reliable) and whatever was known about ZHRs at various periods?
Seems like a straightforward 7-element orbit would get you SOME of this info
(like heliocentric velocity, and a nice graph of the CENTERLINE of the meteoroid
stream relative to the rest of the solar system). But this clearly isn't enough.
In addition to all the observing-related data (color, mag distrib, etc), you'd
also presumably want some information about the *cross-sectional geometry* of
the stream, too: is it a ribbon, an oblate toroid, irregular, etc.?
Last but not least, what is a good (preferrably cheap or free/online) reference
for the mathematics of converting meteroid stream data into radiant plots?
Again, this is for a practical purpose: I'm in contact with the author of the
freeware 'xephem' charting/ephemeris package, and I've piqued his interest in
adding meteor streams/radiants to his database! So any help is appreciated!
Replies via private email, or to the 'meteorobs@latradedot com' list. Thanks!
Lew Gramer, GRALE
Medford, MA, USA