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(meteorobs) NAMN Notes: June 2003
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NAMN Notes: June 2003
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Introduction:
NAMN Notes is a monthly newsletter produced by the North American Meteor
Network, and is available both via email, and on the NAMN website at:
http://www.namnmeteors.org
Contents:
1. Meteors from the Mythical Bootes...
2. Other June Meteor Showers...
3. NAMN Brochure and Handouts...
4. IMO, the International Meteor Organization...
5. Upcoming Meetings...
6. For more info...
1. Meteors from the Mythical Bootes...
June is a fairly quiet month for meteor showers, but can hold surprises.
From about June 26th until July 2nd, a shower we call the June Bootids (JBO)
is active, with maximum activity occurring on June 27th at 19h 30m UT,
Universal Time.
These meteors radiate from the constellation of Bootes. Most of us know
Bootes as the herdsman in mythology. In one version of the story, Bootes
was the son of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, and is credited with
inventing the plough. The proximity of Ursa Major in the sky, often called
the Plough, may have something to do with this.
In another version, Bootes was Arcas, the son of Zeus and his lady friend
Callisto. The story goes that King Lycaon of Arcadia, the father of
Zeus's lover Callisto, wasn't really convinced that Zeus was really Zeus.
So, he invited him to dinner, and served Arcas as the entree. Zeus (being a
god) realized what the nasty Lycaon had done, hurled some thunderbolts to
get rid of the sons of Lycaon, and turned Lycaon himself into a wolf. He
then resurrected his son Arcas and gave him to the Pleiade Maia to raise.
Unfortunately, Arcas couldn't be raised by his real mother, Callisto... as
jealous Hera, Zeus's wife, had turned Callisto into a bear, and she was off
roaming the woods somewhere. The star Arcturus, the brightest star in the
constellation Bootes, comes from the Greek for 'guardian of the bear', and
is often depicted as leading the constellation Canes Venatici chasing the
bears around the pole.
Apparently in Egyptian lore, Bootes was a hippopotamus, the incarnation of a
goddess who kept the evil stars in check. Another version portrays Bootes
as Icarius, the winemaker, who learned the secrets of the vine from
Dionysius. A group of peasants killed him when they thought he had poisoned
them with his wine... but the gods looked kindly on him, and placed him in
the sky as Bootes. His grieving daughter Erigone was placed in the sky as
Virgo... and his devoted dog Maera was placed in the sky as Canis Major.
The June Bootids are debris from Comet 7P/Pons-Winnecke. This comet was
discovered from Marseilles, France on June 12, 1819 by the famous comet
hunter Jean Louis Pons. It was rediscovered on March 9th, 1858 by F.A.
Winnecke of Bonn, Germany. Both names were adopted for the comet.
The ZHR, Zenithal Hourly Rate, for this shower is variable. ZHR refers to
the number of meteors, on the average, that an observer would expect to see
with the unaided eye, if they were out under a dark country sky, and if the
radiant, the area in the sky where the meteors seem to come from, is
directly overhead. A variable rate means that we may see little... or we
may see a lot. In 1998 there was an outburst, and rates of from 50 to over
100 meteors per hour were seen for over half a day. So... variable means
surprises. If you don't go out and look, you could miss something quite
spectacular!
The radiant for this shower, at maximum on the 27th, will be at 224 degrees,
ie RA 14h 55.8m, Dec +48, which is about 8 degrees north of the star beta
Bootes, the star called Nekkar. These are slow meteors, with a velocity of
about 18 km per second, so will be quite distinctive. To see a map showing
the radiant, check out http://www.imodot net/calendar/cal03.html#June-Bootids.
The IMO, International Meteor Organization, in their 2003 Meteor Shower
Calendar, writes:
"We... encourage all observers to routinely monitor the expected activity
period in case of future outbursts... The dynamics of the stream are poorly
understood. The shower's parent comet 7P/Pons-Winnecke was at perihelion in
January 1996 and again in May 2002. Its orbit currently lies around 0.24
astronomical units outside the Earth's at its closest approach, and the 1998
outburst is thought to be caused by old material in mean-motion resonance
with Jupiter. We pass the resonant cloud in 2004 again and may already hope
for heightened rates in 2003..."
For information on what to record while observing, check out our NAMN
Observing Guide at http://www.namnmeteors.org/guide.html.
Print yourself a set of our NAMN star charts to use in estimating the
brightness of the meteors you see. These can be found at
http://www.namnmeteors.org/charts.html
Recording sheets for your meteor data can be found at
http://www.namnmeteors.org/namn_form.html
and an email template at
http://www.namnmeteors.org/appendixC.html
So... get out and take a look at this shower. You may think of the June
Bootids as meteors from the herdsman, or from the son of Zeus, or from a
winemaker, or from a hippopotamus... regardless of the mythical origins,
this is a very real shower, and one which could hold some interesting
surprises!
2. Other June Meteor Showers...
The Sagittarids (SAG) started to become active about April 15th, and can be
seen through until about mid-July. These are average velocity meteors, at
about 30 km per second. ZHR rates are about 5 meteors per hour. The
Sagittarids are actually a complex of radiants near the ecliptic, and are
surmised to be debris from a number of unknown bodies. Fireballs have been
associated with this meteor shower complex. Radiant coordinates for the
month are as follows:
May 30 256 -23 ie. RA 17h 04.2m Dec -23
June 10 265 -23 ie. RA 17h 40.2m Dec -23
June 15 270 -23 ie. RA 18h 00.0m Dec -23
June 20 275 -23 ie. RA 18h 19.8m Dec -23
June 25 280 -23 ie. RA 18h 40.2m Dec -23
June 30 284 -23 ie. RA 18h 55.8m Dec -23
Are there other meteors showers visible in June besides the June Bootids and
the Sagittarids? Yes. The showers we present here are the ones listed on
the 2003 'Working List of Visual Meteor Showers', put out by the IMO, the
International Meteor Organization. There are many other minor showers that
more experienced observers, or telescopic observers, or radio observers,
monitor. Details on many of these can be found on Gary Kronk's 'Comets and
Meteor Showers' website at http://comets.amsmeteors.org
For those observers interested in trying out radio observation of meteors,
there are a number of daylight meteor showers, invisible to visual
observers, but accessible for those listening in by radio. Details and
links on observing the following showers can be found on the IMO website at
http://www.imodot net
May Arietids - from May 4 to June 6 - max on May 16, 20h UT
omicron Cetids - from May 5 to June 2 - max on May 20, 19h UT
Arietids - from May 22 to July 2 - max on June 7, 22h UT
zeta Perseids - from May 20 to July 5 - max on June 9, 22h UT
beta Taurids - from June 5 to July 17 - max on June 28, 21h UT
Besides recognized main showers, and other minor showers, there is also
sporadic meteor activity in June. This sporadic activity is about 7
meteors per hour, visible to the unaided eye. This activity is comprised
partly of random meteors and partly of meteors that belong to long-ago, now
untraceable showers.
This month, the phases of the moon are as follows:
Sat. June 7 first quarter
Sat. June 14 full moon
Sat. June 21 last quarter
Sun. June 29 new moon
Planets at midmonth, and their magnitudes, for northern observers, are:
Venus -3.9 in east in morning about 1 hour before sunrise
Jupiter -1.9 in Cancer
Mars -0.9 in Aquarius
A star map showing the planets' positions can be printed off from
http://www.heavens-above.com - 'Select' your location, then go to 'Whole Sky
Chart'.
3. NAMN Brochure and Handouts...
NAMN, the North American Meteor Network, has a number of items that can be
easily printed off for handing out at astronomy events, star parties, or
your local club. These items are as follows, and are in Word format:
2003 NAMN brochure (double-sided, tri-fold)
2003 NAMN 'What are Meteors?'
2003 NAMN 'Surf the Astro Web'
2003 NAMN 'Astro Contact Sheet' (with space to insert your local club info)
These are available (free of charge) by email. If you would like copies of
these, contact Cathy Hall at chall@cyberusdot ca
4. IMO, the International Meteor Organization...
Those of you interested in meteor observing should also check out the
website of the IMO, the International Meteor Organization:
http://www.imodot net
The IMO welcomes all meteor observers - both amateur and professional - and
has a wealth of information for both. For us amateurs, the following are
especially useful:
IMO Meteor Shower Calendar 2003:
http://www.imodot net/calendar/cal03.html
IMO Working list of visual meteor showers:
http://www.imodot net/calendar/cal03.html#Table5
Other good reading can be found on the site for information on meteor
photography, video work, and radio observations. There is a good section
called 'Who is Who' where you can find out how to contact other meteor
observers around the globe. There are also links to other meteor webpages,
both general and specialized. Just head to http://www.imodot net and explore!
Membership in the IMO includes a great publication that keeps you up to date
on meteor news and results around the world. For information on how to
join, check out http://www.imodot net/member.html or (in North America)
contact Robert Lunsford directly at secretary@imodot net
The IMO is having their IMC, International Meteor Conference just outside
Berlin, Germany this year - and it promises to be both informative and lots
of fun! It will be the 15th anniversary of the IMO. If you have never
attended one of these fun events before - <this> is the year to come meet
all the observers that we usually only chat with by email! Check out more
details as noted in our meeting section below. It's in late September, so
there is lots of time to plan to attend. There is a discount if you
register by July 11th. Come and enjoy the talks, and meet friends
from around the globe! Info can be found at
http://www.imodot net/news/imc.html and preliminary program, location photos,
etc. at http://aipsoe.aipdot de/~rend/2003imc.html. We hope to see you there!
5. Upcoming Meetings...
June 25 - July 2, Moscow, Russia...
The 95th Anniversary of the Tunguska Event, the Tunguska 2003 International
Conference, will be held over several locations - Krasnoyarsk, Vanavara,
and Moscow, with talks and a special excursion to the epicenter of the
Tunguska event. The organizers welcome all those interested in the
Tunguska event - even if you just want to come as a tourist to visit the
famous Tunguska site! For information, check out
http://olkhov.narod.ru/conf03.htm#7b or contact Elena Batygina at
batyginaek@evenkya.ru.
August 10-14, Washington State, USA...
The Cometary Dust in Astrophysics conference will be held at Crystal
Mountain, in Washington State, USA. The purpose of the meeting will be the
integration of astrophysical observations of comets and cosmic dust with
laboratory analyses of interplanetary dust, stardust, and meteorites. For
more information, check out http://stardust.wustldot edu/CDA.html or contact
Donald Brownlee at brownlee@bluemoon.astro.washingtondot edu
September 18-21, Bollmannsruh, Germany...
The IMC, International Meteor Conference, of the IMO, the International
Meteor Organization, will be held in Bollmannsruh, Germany. This is the
annual world meeting for amateur meteor observers and professionals alike!
The location of the conference is a hostel near the town of Brandenburg,
about 40 km west of Berlin. It is situated in a rural area by a lake, and
facilities include accommodation in bungalows, a cafe and bar, a lecture
hall, an open air stage, and a place for a campfire and barbecue. The
special excursion during the conference will be to Berlin to the Museum for
Natural History, for a lecture on meteorites and viewing of the meteorite
collection. For more information, check out
http://aipsoe.aipdot de/~rend/2003imc.html and http://www.imodot net/news/imc.html
or contact Ina Rendtel at treasurer@imodot net. IMC 2003 marks the 15th
anniversary of the IMO - so meteor observers from around the globe are all
invited for this special event!
For more information on upcoming astronomy meetings, see: "International
Astronomy Meetings List" at http://cadcwww.hia.nrcdot ca/meetings
6. For more info...
NAMN email: namn@atmob.org
NAMN website: http://www.namnmeteors.org
Mark Davis, meteors@comcastdot net
Goose Creek, South Carolina, USA
Coordinator, North American Meteor Network
Cathy Hall, chall@cyberusdot ca
Metcalfe, Ontario, Canada
Co-author, NAMN Notes
Lew Gramer, dedalus@alum.mitdot edu
Medford, Massachusetts, USA
Coordinator, Public Outreach
Owner/Moderator, 'MeteorObs'
Kevin Kilkenny, namnfireball@earthlinkdot net
Staten Island, New York, USA
Coordinator, Fireballs and Meteorites
Back issues of NAMN Notes can be found online at the NAMN website and in
the MeteorObs archives at:
http://www.meteorobs.org by selecting 'Browse Archive by Month'
To subscribe to the meteor email list:
Contact Lew Gramer at: dedalus@alum.mitdot edu
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Here's to 'Clear Skies' for June...
June 2003 NAMN Notes co-written
by Mark Davis and Cathy Hall
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