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(meteorobs) Fwd Re: [EAMN] LINEAR A2 + possible meteor shower


Forward without permission from Eastern Australia Meteor Network.

Naturally, the realistic chances of a meteor shower may be remote
or nil. (Not sure what our distances from the comet orbit is, but
this was clearly not a near-Earth pass of the nucleus itself! And
of course, cometary debris takes tens to hundreds of years to fan
out across interplanetary space.) But I thought this of interest.

Lew


------- Forwarded Message

To: "astroaustralis" <AstroAustralis@yahoogroups.com>, <EAMN@yahoogroups.com>
From: "Michael Mattiazzo" <mmatti@yp-connectdot net>
Mailing-List: list EAMN@yahoogroups.com; contact EAMN-owner@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2001 16:05:52 +0930
Subject: Re: [EAMN] LINEAR A2 + possible meteor shower

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ian Musgrave & Peta O'Donohue" <reynella@miradot net>
To: <AstroAustralis@yahoogroups.com>; <EAMN@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2001 7:49 AM
Subject: [EAMN] LINEAR A2

>LINEAR A2 is at it again! Over on the MPL list Michael Mattiazzo has
>eported that the comet brightened rapidly,
>Its magnitude has increased from 5.6 on Jul 11.69 UT to 5.3 on Jul 12.56
>and then to to 5.1. I FINAlLY got a look this morning (13th) at 5.45 CST
>(brain can't handle UT conversions) when a fortuitous patch of cloud moved.
>Magnitude was >5.7 and < 4.9 (hows that for accuracy :-) but probably
>around 5.6. The coma was definitly larger than the last time I looked, but
>I had no opportunity to do a better estimate before the cloud moved in again.
>So LINEAR A2 may have split again, the comet will go through earths orbital
>plane on the 15th and 16th, should be an interesting few days.

Hi all,

Actually,the comet passed through Earths orbital plane on July 4th.
ie. the comet crossed (ascended) the ecliptic from south to north. Just
simply look on a star map with comets path to determine that date.

To determine the date when Earth crosses the comets orbital plane, you need
the comets longitude of ascending node = 295 deg and descending node = 115
deg.
Earths longitude on Sep 21st is = 0 deg, Dec 21st ~ 90 deg, Mar 21st ~ 180
deg and Jun 21st ~ 270 deg.
Hence the Earth will cross the comets orbital plane ~ July 15-16th.

A mere 11-12 days after the comet had been there!
Hence the possibility of a meteor shower emanating from Canis Major around
this time.
After sunset, Canis Major hangs low over the western horizon.
The radiant is higher in the morning sky but affected by moonlight.

Good luck.

Cheers,
Michael Mattiazzo
Wallaroo, South Aust
mmatti@yp-connectdot net


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