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(meteorobs) Fine Meteor Sighting (was Re: meteorobs-digest V3 #126)
Terry M asked:
>It started at Polaris and went due west ending about 25 degrees up from
>the horizon... I was wondering if this one came from a known radiant.
Terry, this is an excellent question - one that many newcomers to meteor
observing (and 'meteorobs') may be interested in! Unfortunately, there's
no way to tell for sure from your description whether your meteor may've
been associated with a meteor shower or not. A meteor whose trail began
near Polaris and headed roughly toward the Western azimuthal (compass)
point on the horizon - which I'm just guessing is what you meant by say-
int it was "headed due West" - might have traced back to the radiant of
the Delta Aurigid meteor shower, which is still quite active right now.
However, you don't note what time you saw the meteor, so it's impossible
to even that much for sure. Now the Delta Aurigids are very fast meteors:
if both the 3 second duration and pathlength (70 degrees!) you estimated
are pretty close, then your meteor was actually very fast indeed! But at
the end, if your meteor was actually 60 or 70 degrees long, it would have
been far TOO LONG to come from the Delta Aurigids' radiant - which lies
a mere 40 degrees from Polaris, near where your meteor started.
Obviously, there is a whole set of techniques to be learned when figuring
out whether a meteor comes from any given radiant or not... :) But hey,
it really isn't as tough as it might seem to learn those techniques! All
it takes is a little reading and some time under the sky - and what more
fun classroom could there be to learn in than a dark, clear sky? :)
Lew, praying for folks all along the Southeastern US Coast
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