Conference 7.286::space

The Geminids (sp?) meteor shower was the 14th, I believe.  It may have been one
of them.

Burns

    I peeled this off the USENET where it was mentioned that a
    fireball was seen. It might have been the same fireball, just
    seen from a different location.
    
    Bob
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article: 78643
Newsgroups: sci.astro,alt.sci.planetary
From: hurleyj@netcom.com (Jim Hurley)
Subject: Re: Meteor Shower 12/14?
Organization: Mind Your Own, a division of None of Your
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 1994 11:20:21 GMT
 
szabo@netcom.com (Nick Szabo) writes:
 
-->I've heard radio reports of a significant meteor shower
-->tonight (12/14, midnight-current).  It's cloudy here
-->in the San Fransisco Bay Area.  Any info?                 
 
-->(Also there have been major power surges and outages
-->all down the U.S. West Coast, presumably unrelated!)
-->-- 
-->Nick Szabo				szabo@netcom.com
 
I saw a large fireball from my car while driving tonight
at about 10:30.
-- 
 Jim Hurley                                          hurleyj@netcom.com
    ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/hu/hurleyj/www/home.html
NOTE change ----------------^^^   This is accessible; Netcom is slow...
 

Yeah...I wonder what time zone Hurley is in?

Burns

The Geminids are a noticably active meteor shower and somewhat unusual in
that their radiant is somewhat high up before midnight, and therfore
quite visible in the early evening hours, rather than some ungodly
hour before dawn.  I saw a few previous to the maximum, but got mostly
cloudy skies around the peak (which I thought was closer to the 11th, but
that's not what I've been reading afterwards.  Sigh...)

PeterT

    
    Does anyone know on what date the Geminids are expected to peak this
    December (1995)?  Also, are they visible all over the world or only in the
    northern hemisphere?
    
    Thanks in advance.
    

It apparently peaks on Dec 14.  You nominally see about 30 meteors/hour. 
However, the fainter meteors will be washed out by bright moonlight, so the
Orionids (20 m/h) may be a better view this year on Oct 22, since they peak 2
days before the new moon.

November 17 is the Leonid shower, btw (10-15 m/h).

This according to several web sites that I reached by searching for Geminids on
the Excite! web searcher.

Burns

RE: <<< Note 930.5 by NETCAD::GUPTA >>>

>Also, are they visible all over the world or only in the northern hemisphere?

Since meteor showers are caused by the Earth running into collections of
particles, and since the Earth moves "sideways" through space (equator first,
so to speak), the northern and southern hemispheres receive about the same
exposure (the 23 degree axis tip will favor one hemisphere or the other some-
what, at different times of the year, but not greatly). So observers on both
hemispheres should statistically see something similar. 

If the shower's peak is very short, then only those observers on the then-night
side (east/west) will get a good view.

I'm sure the Astronomy conference (not sure where that is now) has lots of
information. 
						-- Tom

    The Astronomy conference is at WARHED::ASTRONOMY.
    
    Bob

    
    Thanks for all the info!
    
    -Sanjeev
    

    This should really be in astro, but...
    
    Some showers do favor one hemisphere over another.  Meteor showers 
    are usually associated with comets (being particles thrown off
    the comet) and have a definite orbit.  Depending on the inclination
    of the orbit and where the earth intersects it leads to the
    meteors appearing to be radiating from a certain point.  Hence
    their being assigned various names depending on which constellation
    the radiant is in.  The Geminids, being associated with a zodiacal
    constellation that is viewable from both hemispheres, should be
    visible from both, though might be slightly better from the north,
    as I believe the radiant is somewhat high in Geminii.  The moon
    should be wanning at that point, and the Geminid radiant is up 
    pretty early in the evening, so it could still be a good show.
    I have good memories of a nice Geminid shower a number of years
    back.  The one to watch over the next few years will be the 
    Leonids. Every 33 years or so there is a potential for a meteor
    storm from them, and the last one was in '66.  But it could be
    anywhere plus or minus a few years, so it might be worth checking
    out.
    
    PeterT
    

RE: <<< Note 930.10 by SMURF::PETERT "rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty" >>>

Ok, good point about the relationship of meteor storms and comets. Those which
had high inclination orbits can produce off-ecliptic radiants.
						-- Tom