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(meteorobs) names of meteor showers with associated comets



I thought I'd add a couple of thoughts to your discussion about
names of meteor "showers", as my name has been mentioned in this
regard.  Bob Lunsford stated that the Draconids is a recent term.
In fact, it appears that the names Giacobinids and October 
Draconids have been interchanged about half-and-half for many 
decades.  Miroslav Plavec referred to them as the "gamma Draconids" 
in 1955, while J. G. Davies referred in the same proceedings volume 
to the same thing as "The Giacobinid Meteor Shower" (METEORS, ed. by
T. R. Kaiser, London: Pergamon Press).  Three years later, in
a table of "Comets and associated meteor streams", Fred Whipple
(1958, Smithsonian Report for 1957, Washington: Smithsonian
Institution Publ. 4318, p. 249) lists the "October Draconids"
with comet 1946 V.  In 1961, D. W. R. McKinley (METEOR SCIENCE
AND ENGINEERING, New York: McGraw-Hill, p. 146) noted that
"some efforts are being made to restore the purity of the
nomenclature by converting Bielids to Andromedids and Giacobinids
to Draconids, with only partial success in the face of a popular
adherence to the cometary terms."
     I do think that Dave Hostetter probably is fairly correct
about the Giacobinid name, as the shower was predicted in 1915
before it was ever (knowingly) seen, as a result of a close
approach of comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner to the earth's orbit back
then.  Though a similar instance may have occurred
with 7P/Pons-Winnecke and the June Bootids in 1916, these cases
were (as far as we know) the first.  In previous cases where comets
had been identified with meteor showers, the meteor showers had
been previously observed.
- Dan Green  [green@cfa.harvarddot edu]
        

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