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(meteorobs) Re: 'Linearids'



I am sorry for many mistakes not only in grammer... 
                    Michal Haltuf



Dne 20 Oct 99 v 7:45, napsal(a) Sirko Molau:

> ... a posting from Joe Rao on the 'meteorobs' mailing list.
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 13:08:26 EDT
> From: Skywayinc@aol.com
> Reply-To: meteorobs@jovian.com
> To: meteorobs@jovian.com
> Subject: Re: (meteorobs) Radio observation + Linearids
> 
>     The circumstances concerning a prospective "Linearid" display on the 
> evening of November 11th is most intriguing.  The moment when Earth passes 
> closest to the ascending node of C/1999J3 at 2:41 p.m. EST.  Unfortunately -- 
> daylight for North America, although well into evening darkness over Europe.
> 
>     The radiant for this prospective display very near to the star Phecda, 
> the lower left star in the bowl of the Big Dipper (not Beta Umi as earlier 
> noted by Michal Haltuf).  From my own calculations, I come up with an RA of 
> 11h 40m, Dec. +53 deg.  So even for Europeans, the radiant stands only about 
> a mere 5-degrees above the northern horizon (at latitude 40N) at the time 
> that the shower may reach its peak!
> 
>     Nonetheless . . . the separation between the Earth's orbit and that of 
> the parent comet is just over 0.011 a.u. (not 0.003 a.u. as noted by Haltuf). 
>  As to what type of activity might be expected, it should be noted that the 
> 1985 Giacobinids briefly produced an outburst of ZHR's of 600 to 800 from 
> Japan, with the Earth following 21P/Giacobini-Zinner to its node by just 26.5 
> days.  The separation between the orbit of the comet and Earth was 0.033 -- 
> or three times the separation between the upcoming case of Earth and 
> C/1999J3.  
> 
>     In 1933, when a major Giacobinid storm (ZHR = 3000 - 29000) occurred, 
> these values were 80 days and 0.005 a.u.  Earth is following LINEAR to its 
> ascending node by ~39.9 days.  Hence, the situation regarding the prospective 
> LINEARIDS is roughly midway between the two above cases.
> 
>     Among the chief differences between Giacobini-Zinner and LINEAR is that 
> Earth intersected comet debris on the inside of Comet G-Z's orbit, whereas we 
> would intersect debris on the outside of comet LINEAR.  In addition, the 
> dust-distribution surrounding LINEAR is completely unknown.  Also, 
> Giacobini-Zinner is a well-known short-period comet of 6.5 years and has been 
> observed to circle the Sun on many other occasions, whereas LINEAR is a newly 
> discovered long-period object of ~63,000 years.
> 
>     Nonetheless . . . I would strongly urge all observers to carefully 
> monitor the skies for meteors from this shower, especially during the 
> pre-dawn hours of November 11 (when the radiant is high up in the northeast 
> sky), as well as later that evening.  It appears that should any significant 
> outburst occur, those in western and central Asia would have the best chance 
> of viewing it (for them, in the after-midnight/pre-dawn hours of November 12 
> local time).  
> 
>     Although we know that the Earth will be closest to the comet's ascending 
> node at ~19.6 UT on November 11, this doesn't mean that the actual peak of a 
> prospective LINEAR display could not occur many hours earlier or later.  An 
> example of this occurred one year ago with the 1998 Giacobinids: the time 
> when Earth was predicted to cross the node of 21P/Giaconini-Zinner was 20:53 
> UT on October 8; but the shower actually reached its peak at 13:15 UT -- more 
> than 7.5 hours earlier.
> 
>     Thus, I would strongly suggest that all interested observers should be on 
> high-alert for a 24-hour interval on either side of the predicted nodal 
> crossing time of 19.6 UT/November 11.  
> 
>     Who knows?  It might prove to be an interesting warm-up for the Leonids, 
> which are due to peak just a week later!
> 
> -- joe rao      
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