I saw a few Sunday night. I'll keep an eye out for them tonight. Debbie On Tue Nov 2 10:59 , Canopus56 <canopus56@yahoo.com> sent:
From Today's spaceweather.com 11/2/2010. Note it is a potential "non-event" qualified by a "big if":
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BE ALERT FOR 'HARTLEY-ID' METEORS: If Comet Hartley 2 is going to produce a meteor shower, tonight is the night. According to experts, there is a slim chance that dust from the comet could hit Earth's atmosphere on Nov. 2nd and 3rd, producing a slow flurry of meteors streaming from the constellation Cygnus. If you're out after sunset, be alert for Hartley-ids.
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See also:
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/27oct_hartleyids/
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Even so, he plans to keep an eye out for more in the nights ahead, especially on Nov. 2nd and 3rd. That's when a potential Hartley-id meteor shower would be most intense, according to calculations by meteor expert Peter Brown of UWO.
The comet was closest to Earth on Oct. 20th, but that's not necessarily the shower's peak-time. Cooke explains: "The comet has been sputtering space dust for thousands of years, making a cloud that is much bigger than the comet itself. Solar radiation pressure and planetary encounters cause the comet and the dust cloud to diverge—not a lot, but enough to make the date of the shower different from the date of the comet's closest approach."
If there is a Hartley-id shower—"that's a big IF," notes Cooke--it would emanate from the constellation Cygnus the Swan, visible to observers in the northern hemisphere almost directly overhead after sunset in early November. Lunar interference should not be a problem. On Nov. 2nd and 3rd, the Moon will be a slender crescent, providing dark skies for a meteor watch.
"I'll definitely have our cameras turned on," says Cooke. "It's probably going to be a non-event. On the other hand," he points out, "we might discover a whole new meteor shower."
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- Clear Skies - Kurt
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