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(meteorobs) Re: High rates last night?
Kim and All,
Some updated studies on the September
Perseids/Delta Aurigids have been included in the 2004 IMO Shower Calendar. It
states:
"A detailed,
fresh analysis of the low-activity, and little-studied, delta-Aurigids was
carried out by Audrius Dubietis and Rainer Arlt using IMO data from 1991-2001 in
2002. This demonstrated the shower probably represents a combination of two
separate, but possibly related, minor sources, the September Perseids, for which
the maximum time given above holds, and the delta-Aurigids, whose activities and
radiants effectively overlap one another. The showers are probably not
resolvable by visual watchers, who are advised to retain the, slightly amended,
shower parameters listed above. The actual delta-Aurigid phase seems to give a
weak maximum around sol = 181° (2004 September 23; ZHR 3, r= 2.5).
"
Notice the second maximum coincides with your
observation of possible enhanced rates for the Delta Aurigid
stream.
Bob Lunsford
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2003 7:36
AM
Subject: (meteorobs) High rates last
night?
Early yesterday the forecast
for last night called for mostly clear skies here, so I made plans to get
two or three hours of observations in. I was out at my site by 3:15
local time and saw two casual meteors before I could even sit back in my lawn
chair to get started. The sky was exceptionally clear and I had counted
LM's of 6.3 within twenty minutes. The truely astonishing thing was the
rates -- within the first thirty minutes of my watch I had seen 12 meteors in
addition to the two casual ones! That's a meteor every 2.5 minutes, on
average. Then, at around 3:53 am or so, the stars started winking
out and within two or three minutes the entire sky was clouded
out!!! What luck -- I felt like a kid being kicked out of the candy
store!
Interestingly, no fewer than
six of the meteors aligned with the DAU radiant, and at least two others
*possibly* aligned with the same radiant. The northern and southern apex
sources yielded three other meteors. Perhaps the possible DAU's were
also from the apex? I wouldn't have any other explanation and I was
beginning to worry about what to label these since DAU rates weren't supposed
to be high this late in their period. But alas, the clouds took care of
that dilemma! I didn't have enough TEFF for a full period.
Maybe this was just a random
thirty minute "outburst" or maybe the apex region was just very active last
night. I'm not bothering with an actual report but if anyone wants my
data reduced I'd be glad to do it.
Kim Youmans
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