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Re: (meteorobs) Re: What? A Leonid storm in *1886*?!?
In a message dated 3/28/00 11:47:03 PM Eastern Standard Time,
kronkg@medicine.wustldot edu writes:
<< "I was sleeping in a room with an almost due north exposure looking into
an open compound, and chanced to wake up about three in the morning, when I
saw a number of meteors flashing across the window. >>
At three in the morning, the radiant of the Andromedids would be very low
down in the northwest . . . while the Leonid radiant would be quite high in
the northeast. It is very unfortunate that Kingsmill did not at least
mention (if his knowledge of the constellations was poor) the DIRECTION of
the sky to which the radiant was located!
While Gary Kronk certainly brings up a good point regarding the useage of
the Julian versus Gregorian Calendar (and thus a good argument for possibly
identifying the 1886 display as as an Andromedid), were this true, it means
that this same stupendous display would have occurred earlier in the evening
with the Andromedid radiant very high in the sky or nearly overhead for the
longitudes of western Asia and Europe. It would seem very improbable (at
least to me) that such an amazing spectacle would have been missed . . . or
at least some sort of notation made about them from this part of the globe.
Conversely . . . for these same localities, Leo would either have been
very low to, or even below the northeast horizon. Only eastern Asia and the
western Pacific regions would have had a good shot at seeing such a
spectacular Leonid display -- if indeed this description of a fantastic
shower truly belongs to the Leonids.
-- joe rao
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