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(meteorobs) Searching for an ETA without a train...Boredom and Alpha Scorpiids



On Alpha Scorpiids and Fighting Boredom at 4:30 a.m:

            After having lots of clear weather and moonless skies, I've
taken the opportunity to get out and see for myself if sporadic rates
really do increase just before dawn.  Can't believe EVERTHING I read,
after all!  Sure enough, all those missing meteors from nine and ten PM
start showing up...usually!
            But seriously, I've been out most mornings now for the past
week and a half, and I've watch sporadic rates gradually fall dawn by
dawn, at least here at my site.  And as the rates fall, I begin to do
battle with boredom.   Of course, I could take the time to orient myself
to a few more of those new IMO LM charts...but in the DARK?  With a red
light?  Maybe next time they'll identify more stars so figuring out
where in the sky the chart indicates will be simpler for the
"consellationally challenged" among us, primarily me!
            Most interesting of all, I guess, has been the repeated
appearance of a certain "species" (i.e. shower member) of meteor I've
noticed each night, at the rate of about one, maybe two, per two hours
of teff...in fact, as soon as I see one of these now, I know immediately
I can trace it back to near Antares...the characteristics of which
follow:
         1.  Slow to medium slow:  they are easy to see and enjoyable to
watch due to their speed
         2.  little or no wake.No train.  Basically just a meteor head,
although one did spread out into a compact,
bullet-shaped, laser-like wake.
         3.  Fairly long path-length.  You really get a good look at
them.
         4.  Color -- instead of the usual white or yellow, these
meteors appear a cool, pale bluish color.
         5.  Magnitude-- none brighter than a +3.  Usually a 3 or 4.
    One odd thing about them that makes them unusual... their bluishness
and paleness makes them *seem* to travel back "behind"
    and among the background stars.

Oubursts, Everyone
  Kim S. Youmans


        Now I'm just a novice meteor counter.  Tracing these back to an
exact radiant is not my specialty yet.  So my question would be, of all
the radiants near Scorpio at the present (five or six!)  does anyone
know what minor shower these meteors could  most likely be?   They do
SEEM to line up quite well with Antares.  They are quite distinctive!


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