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(meteorobs) Possible January Coma Berenicids: Preliminary Results
Possible January Coma Berenicids: Preliminary Results
By Roberto Gorelli and Alastair McBeath
We have been very gratified by the response to our call for observations
on this possible new minor shower, generally renamed the "JCBs" by most
contributing observers, issued by e-mail on 2001 January 10, and in more
detailed written and referenced form in "WGN, the Journal of the IMO"
28:6 (2000 December), pp. 190-191. Several sets of past observations and
possible radiants in this area during late January were forwarded to us,
as well as data from this year. We are continuing follow-up
investigations of these items, together with earlier radiant catalogue
searches, and intend a detailed summary of our findings to be published
in "WGN" later in the year.
Our preliminary analysis of the 2001 plotted and imaged data suggests
there may indeed be a minor shower radiant active in north-western Leo
or eastern Coma throughout the investigated period (January 20-26). Its
precise location has been difficult to pin down, as the majority of
trails were recorded to this region's north, plus a few to its west. For
the future, we would encourage observers to make more late night watches
so the areas south and east of the Coma-Leo border can be as well
covered as those readily visible earlier in the night.
For now, we wish to particularly thank the following people for
providing data from 2001: Dirk Artoos (radio), Peter Gural (video), Bob
Lunsford (visual) and Richard Taibi (visual); as well as Jim Bedient
(AMS visual radiants) and Sirko Molau (AKM video meteors) who provided
information from earlier years. Dirk and Richard very kindly provided
full copies of data from an earlier investigation of this possible
shower too (see Dirk's articles in "WGN" 17:6 (1989), p. 215, 18:6
(1990), pp. 209-210, and 19:3 (1991), pp. 102-104), and Richard also
searched his visual records since then for further possibly related
meteors. In addition, we are grateful to Jeff Lashley whose video
efforts were regrettably thwarted by clouds throughout the 2001 January
20-26 period. As for the two authors, we met with only limited success,
with one of us (RG) clouded-out during the critical nights, the other
(AM) managing some visual observing on January 24-25.
If anyone still has observations from the January 20-26 period they have
not submitted as yet, which may contain possible JCB trails, please
contact either of the authors quickly. We are also interested in
observations of potential radiants in this area of sky from the past,
and remain keen to know if any plate archives exist which might contain
still untraced prediscovery images of Comet Lowe 1913 I, which we
earlier suggested might be linked to the possible JCB shower. Any plates
most likely to hold this information would have been taken of the Virgo
region in December 1912.
E-mail addresses:
Roberto Gorelli: <md6648@mclinkdot it>
Alastair McBeath: <vice_president@imodot net>
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