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Re: (meteorobs) What was it?




Andrew wrote:
>>On the nights of July 22/23 and 23/24 at aprox. 3:30 am, I found myself
>>watching what seemed to be a meteor shower. On each night I counted 8 
>>meteor streaks in less than an hour.  They seemed to be coming from the 
>>east southeast, a little north of the Pliedes...

And Wayne responded:
>Anyone else up toward new england (hint...hint) get out those nights?
>I believe the clouds stopped around the NY/Conn border.

Sorry, Wayne - wish my skies were as good as you remembered them! ;>

My wx report for those two nights showed Cs and Ci on the first night, and 
intermittent low clouds and rain the second night. Too bad, it seems!

As for what you saw, Andrew, I checked Gary Kronk's "Comet and Meteor Pages" on 
the Web, and couldn't find any known (or prospective) minor showers for those 
nights that matched what you saw. Gary's Web site is AWESOME, by the way - check 
it out if you haven't already! The URL is:
	http://medicine.wustldot edu/~kronkg
It's full of interesting - and really useful - information about meteors...

It IS possible that you witnessed a short outburst of a previously unknown 
shower, Andrew! Or it may have just been a chance alignment (8 random meteors in 
an hour - called "sporadics" by meteor observers - is not at all uncommon this 
time of year). Like Wayne says, the only way to check is to watch next year!

Thanks, great post, Andrew!
Lew Gramer

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