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Re: (meteorobs) meteors
It was asked: > Can someone help me distinquish between a meteor shower
> meteor and a sporadic?
From 2 definitive sources we use, here it goes-
1. In the fine North American Meteor Network Guide (for visual meteor obs),
Chapt 1 states:
"There are two broad groups of meteors. Those that arrive from random
locations in the sky are term 'sporadic', while others that appear to
radiate from a particular region (termed the RADIANT) of the sky come
from 'meteor showers'".
2. In the International Meteor Organization's WWW Guide for "Major-Shower
Observations", Section 5.4 is entitled 'SHOWER ASSOCIATION' and sttaes
the following:
"Members of a given shower seem to originate from one small area of the
sky; the radiant. Since you memorized the radiant's position in the
sky before the start of the watch you can trace back the meteor's path
as an imaginary straight line, to see whether it intersects the
radiant. Tracing back the meteor's path over a large distance is
difficult ... If the path can be traced back to the radiant, the
meteor was a shower meteor, otherwise it was a sproadic. Two
additional and general rules:
A> Shower meteors appear fasser the larger their distance from the
radiant and the higher their elevation above the horizon. Near
the radiant or near the horizon shower meteors generally appear
slower
B> The apparent length shows a similar behavior to the angular
velocity. Near the radiant or near the horizon meteor paths
are generally short, while they are longer with increasing
distance from the radiant and nearer the zenith.
Hope that helps you pued@msndot com.
Joseph Assmus