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(meteorobs) Re: another question
Michael and All,
I have not seen any answers to your most recent questions so I will take
a stab at it.
Michael Mattiazzo wrote:
> What is the minimum number of sporadic meteors required to define a > new shower radiant? (which, of course, requires confirmation by other > observers) eg. If I happen to observe 4 meteors originating from say > alpha Crucis , and other observers around the globe report 1-4 > meteors also radiating from Crux. Can we call this the alpha crucids?
>
On average any small area of the sky (lets say 5 degrees in diameter)
produces 1 meteor every hour after midnight. This rate is less during
the winter and spring and more during the summer and autumn.
I would say that one would need to see twice this rate in order to even
consider a new radiant. At the end of a 3 hour session you would need at
least 6 meteors with similar velocities appearing from this proposed
radiant.
> Who has the final decision on naming of radiants?
I would imagine that the discoverer could give the radiant a temporary
designation but the true test is to see if activity repeats itself on an
annual basis. Probably 99 percent of the "new radiants" fail to repeat
so there is no need to worry about a name in most cases.
By the way Michael there is already an "Alpha Crucid" shower so if you
discover another one it would probably have to be named the June Crucids
or something similar to avoid any confusion.
Bob Lunsford
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