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Re: (meteorobs) An unknown meteor storm seen in Finland in the 1960's
For the very first time I'd have to disagree with a post from Joe Rao. As
someone who was a very active visual observer in the 1960's and recalls how
enthusiastic meteor observers were in those days, I cannot imagine a major
meteor display occurring and going totally unnoticed by observers - meteor or
otherwise - throughout Europe, the western USSR, and probably the eastern
United States, around the time in question.
Likewise, as I recall, there were at the time suggestions of the possibility
of a Giacobinid meteor display occurring during the parent comet's 1959 and
1972 returns but there certainly was no such published anticipation for the
1965-66 apparition; circumstances were regarded as far from favorable for
such an event. Nor was anything about even a minor Giacobinid display
reported subsequently.
It has been my personal experience in tracking down many other reported
historical events that after 30-40 years all the "facts" have become so
muddled in the minds of a layman witness that they are totally unreliable -
especially the time, date, and year of an event. I've talked with folks who
insisted they had viewed total solar eclipses in their youth while checking
indicated these were really minor lunar events instead; brilliant comets that
memory had transfered a decade or more further into the past , etc. Thus, I'd
have to say the witnessed display in question almost certainly refers to the
November 1966 Leonids.
John Bortle
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