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September 2007

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alpha Aur unusual meteor shower tommorrow monring 9-1 5:33 am MDT
by Kurt Fisher 31 Aug '07

31 Aug '07

As noted in Patrick's news, tomorrow morning's alf Aur shower peak (5:33 am MDT) may have the potential for a 100-200 zhr rate. Unlike the Persids, the alf Aur radiant will be well-positioned at a high 60-70 deg altitude, although a near quarter Moon and the Sun at -14 deg alt presents sky wash-out problems. The predicted high-magnitudes of the meteors from the shower are expected to overcome this constraint. The two leading researchers on meteor shower prediction are Peter Jenniskens and Jérémie Vaubaillon. Jenniskens is guessing ~200 zhr; Vaubaillon is being more conservative: "For the level, I personnally think that ZHR~100 will be reached AT BEST, but some colleagues are more optimistic, so, suspense, suspense!!!" The other unique characteristic of this shower is that it is the only long-period comet that will produce a significant shower in the next fifty years. The Persieds had a white color to the streamer. In the 1994 alf Aur outburst, observers reported green and blue colors. Although the reason for the color is unknown, it may be related to the primordial nature of the surface of the long period comet. - Kurt Some other alf Aur resources: Aurigid Mac Mission Shower highlights page (Peter Jenniskens page) (radiant maps) http://aurigid.seti.org/#report IMO alpha Aur Live Meteor page http://www.imo.net/live/alpha-aurigids2007/ Jérémie Vaubaillon's prediction article http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/EOS.pdf Vaubaillon's site on alf Aur http://www.imcce.fr/page.php?nav=en/ephemerides/phenomenes/meteor/DATABASE/… IMO Shower Calendar http://www.imo.net/calendar/2007 IMO radiant data alf-Aurigids (AUR) Dates Aug 25 - Sep 08 Max date Sep 01 ecliptic 158°6 J2000 alpha 84° J2000 dec +42° v 66 r 2.6 ZHR 7 _______________________________________________ Sent via CSolutions - http://www.csolutions.net

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