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(meteorobs) small outburst on September 7/8 1996?
*** DMS Circular ***
A Possible Small Meteor Outburst on September 7/8 1996
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Dutch observer Koen Miskotte (Ermelo, 52 deg. 18' N, 5 deg. 37' E) observed
something which might have been the descending slope of a small meteor
outburst on September 7/8 1996. In only 47 minutes effective observing time
with a limiting magnitude near +6.3, he observed 13 meteors, of which 8
came from a sharp radiant at RA 4h10m, dec. +47 (1950.0), close to mu
Persei. The meteors had a Perseid-like velocity and were clustered in the
early part of the observational interval.
The observations are suggestive of the descending slope of a meteor
outburst with slopes having a B-value of ~20-35 (a typical value for a 'far
cometary type' meteor outburst) and a peak ZHR >= 30 at a solar longitude
<= 165.940 (1950.0).
It is interesting to note that the observer did not notice anything unusual
other than 'some nice fast meteors coming from the eastern sky' during the
actual observation: the event was only discovered when he was classifying
his meteors from his plottings some time after the observations. This goes
to show that such an event can easily go unnoticed if an observer is not
plotting the observed meteors. This 'mu Perseid' event is reminiscent of
the xi Draconid event of June 15/16 1996 observed by Dutch observer Marco
Langbroek (WGN 24 (1996), p. 115-118) but not confirmed so far. This kind
of small events might be fairly common, but they are difficult to detect
and the activity profiles retain large uncertainties due to the low number
of meteors involved.
We are very interested to learn if anyone can CONFIRM the event, either
from visual or radio observers. Due to the high velocity of the meteors and
relatively low numbers, the event might not be suitable for radio detection
however.
Below the observational data. The observations have been reduced with a
population index of 2.5 and gamma =1.4 in radiant altitude dilution.
Miskotte has a Cp of 1.2.
-Marco Langbroek and Koen Miskotte
Observational team 'Delphinus'
Dutch Meteor Society (DMS), the Netherlands
Observational data. Observer Koen Miskotte, Ermelo, the Netherlands (52
deg. 18' N, 5 deg. 37' E). Date: September 7/8, 1996
UT Teff Lm Nstream Nspo Hrad ZHR
23:35-23:48 0.20 6.3 4 0 44 deg. 33.3 +- 16.7
23:48-00:00 0.20 6.3 2 1 46 deg. 15.9 +- 11.2
00:00-00:25 0.38 6.2 2 4 49 deg. 8.6 +- 6.1
mag +1 +2 +3 +4 +5
mu Per 1 0 4 2 1
spo 0 0 2 2 1
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