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(meteorobs) Re: Cetids + observing for fun
Ever since I began observing there have been a handful of meteors each July
and August coming from deep ESE and SE directions, appearing Perseid-like as
others have mentioned. This goes back to the early 1960's. They are
bright, swift, long-pathed, and almost always trained. The ESE ones seem to
come from the big bend area of Eridanus, and a list of theoretical radiants
from comets by Drummond has a suitable candidate. The spot is about RA 45,
Dec -15. But there have never been enough of them to plot and come up with
a radiant using the regular criteria.
Meteors from further SE have given the impression of a radiant further down
than Cetus, as even from this latitude (26.5N) the paths are quite long. I
am leaning toward something in Sculptor, Fornax, or even southern Eridanus.
A few nights of observing completed (reports forthcoming) finally yielded a
couple of Phoenicids which I had never seen before. The western edge of
Cetus touched my meridian at dawn this morning but I haven't seen enough
meteors even coming from that area to get a radiant. Makes me wonder
whether any of these can ever be pinned down by manual plotting.
My entire attraction to astronomy is based on what I can see with my own
eyes. I wouldn't want to study some aspect, such as meteors, by
instrumental methods alone. So whatever does develop, I will continue
recording visual data. The whole routine of observing is fun at the same
time. Those that never look at the sky are missing something and can show
an astonishing ignorance of what is up there. The best example I know of is
an astronomer who studied the zodiacal light for ten years but never
actually saw it until he moved to Florida. This is the same person who knew
nothing about how fireballs work, so ended up on a classic chase into the
woods looking for a meteorite fall based on a report from someone seeing it
land "half a mile away." I described that situation in detail some months
back.
Norman
Norman W. McLeod III
Asst Visual Program Coordinator
American Meteor Society
Fort Myers, Florida
nmcleod@peganet.com
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