AURIGID METEOR SHOWER:

PRELIMINARY RESULTS:

Preliminary results for observations of the Aurigid meteor shower are starting to trickle in. The general consensus is that the shower was indeed spectacular but didn't rival the Perseids as some predictions said. The results from the Aurigid Meteor Shower Observing Campaign are now available at http://aurigid.seti.org . They have published an account of the airborne observing campaign that produced a peak rate of 100/per hour as of 4:15 PDT. This research study has also asked for independent observers to note the rate at other locations. Go to the above website for further details. The peak rate was less than what was predicted by the researchers involved, and it also seemed to come about 18 minutes earlier than their prediction.

The International Meteor Organization has also begun to gather results for the Aurigid shower. They have so far gathered data from only six observers (at the time when Molly visited the site earlier today). I'm sure that more people will be reporting later. They report a similar peak activity to that of the AMSO. To see their results go to http://www.imo.net/live/alpha-aurigids2007/?PHPSESSID=47c5343cae686224ad0b47d28fbad31 . It should be noted that only two of the IMO's reporters were placed to observe the maximum of the shower.

Finally Molly refers you to a blog, the E.O.A.S. (Earth, Oceans, Atmosphere, Space) blog, based in Kansas. This person saw four Aurigids even though he wasn't in the best viewing location. He has provided a diagram of the meteors that he saw. An interesting fact is that he saw no "green" meteors. All were either white or yellow.