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(meteorobs) Re: Taurid fireballs and Leonids

There were two fireball reports recently that sound like Taurids to me.

>This evening (Sat. Oct. 27)  ... at approx 10:30 we both observed a huge
Fireball lasting approx 7 seconds and started white, then grew a tail and
turned to bluegreen then a white brite flash and it was not visible anymore.
It was approx 75 degrees off the western horizon when it started and it
flashed out at approx 30 degrees above the western horizon, 
>
>Mark


>Dareth Murray of our Rose City Astronomers Club reports a fireball sighted
at 8:50pm PDT October 25 (3:50 UT, Oct. 26):
>...  It lasted about 4 to 5 seconds, was moving east to west and was bright!

 The Taurid radiants are low ENE and rising during late Oct evenings.

In the past I have found that years ending in 1,4,7,8 have unusual numbers
of Taurid fireballs, while the other years have few or none.  As the parent
comet (Encke) has a period of 3.3 years, it is easy to see why.  I do not
know why the material responsible for fireballs hasn't spread out along the
orbital path after this many trips around.  We are in a hot year for the
bright ones.

Joe is right about the public not watching at the right time for Leonids.  I
find that they tend to ignore the right time even if you clearly tell them.
Perhaps they associate  "meteor"  with  "night,"  thus they start watching
as soon as it gets dark, when it is impossible to see ANY Leonids.  I had a
similar experience as GeoZay back in 1966 at Florida State.  The news of the
coming big meteor shower caused a number of students to be already watching
from the dorm sun deck when I went downstairs at 10 PM.  They were probably
up there an hour or more earlier.  So I went up and told some of them to
wait until after 2 AM or so.  I napped and went out after 2 AM, probably
long after the others had given up, and had to wait until 4 AM for it to
start picking up.  Fog and dawn cut me off about 530 AM with a Leonid rate
of about 30/minute.  The peak came after sunrise, but the local newspaper
next evening reported  "Meteor Shower Fizzles."

Norman

Norman W. McLeod III
Staff Advisor
American Meteor Society

Fort Myers, Florida
nmcleod@peganet.com

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