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(meteorobs) Meteor Activity Outlook March 17-23
The moon will be full Monday the 20th placing a damper on meteor
observing this week. There is a small window of dark skies available for
morning observers on Friday and Saturday mornings but the moon will
still be up during morning twilight starting on Sunday. Starting
Wednesday the evening hours begin to get a small period of dark skies as
the moon passes its full phase and does not rise until after the end of
evening twilight.
The only radiant active during the evening will be the Virginids. For
Tuesday night the center of the radiant will be located at 12:36 -02
which is close to the famous double star Porimma, also known as Gamma
Virginis. The radiant is low in the east during the early evening so any
activity from this radiant is remote.
Observers in the Southern Hemisphere and the tropics can also try to
watch out on Friday and Saturday mornings for the Delta Pavonids now
located near 19:14 -60 and the Gamma Normids from 16:20 -51. Both of
these radiants produce swift meteors with geocentric velocities of 60
and 56 km/sec.
It's a shame that the moon is now interfering as recent sporadic rates
have seemed to be better than normal. It will be interesting to see
during the last week of the month (when the moon is less of a nuisance)
if this trend continues or if rates are a more normal 2-3 an hour during
the evening hours and 5-6 an hour during the morning hours.
Clear Skies!
Robert Lunsford
AMS Visual Coordinator
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