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Re: (meteorobs) WG-PACM Alert: Beta Cygnids Nov. 1-8



Ron, especially since all the meteors you describe were very close to the 
"potential" radiant, with a geocentric velocity of 17kps, they would have 
had to be close to the slowest you have ever seen.  Alignment with the 
radiant is not enough, especially with a suspected very minor shower that 
would produce such slow meteors. If they had been seen 40 degrees away, 
then moderate would be a possible overstatement of the speed, but at those 
distances I think not. By the way, Taurids are also slow meteors (~28 kps), 
noticably slow. Any with 17kps velocity should have really impressed you 
with their speed, since that is getting very close to the slowest possible 
for any meteor (11 kps). A similar situation exists with the Draconids, 
which are even slower, IIRC, when we will need to exercise extreme care in 
identifying them next year. It takes a lot of meteors to get a real good 
feel for the slow end of meteor velocities. Now fast ones are much easier, 
since the Leonids will be putting on a demo of fastest possible speeds very 
shortly :->>>> Duck!!
	Just some thought on identifying minor shower members

Wayne