AURIGID METEOR SHOWER REPORTS:

The online space news site Space.Com has published a story written by Peter Jenniskens of the airborne Multi-Instrument Aircraft Campaign. This event was witnessed by only twp observers in 1994 and one in 1986. This year far more people, perhaps thousands, managed to catch the shower due to the predictions of the time based on modelling by Jenniskens' team. Observers in the eastern USA, Brazil and Europe, while unable to directly see the meteors, detected them by listening for distant radio signals. The peak rate at 4:04 PDT detected by the airborne observers was about 100/hour, and the airborne crew saw around 120 meteors each. This meant that they outshone the August Perseids, even if only for a very brief time (see blogs on this post for August and September for more about both the Perseids and the Aurigids). Further details on the results can be found at the above link and also at http://aurigid.seti.org/ . The latter link also gives details on what was seen by ground observers who lived where the shower was visible that night.

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.

COMING LATER TONIGHT:

MORE ON THE AURIGID METEOR SHOWER, EARLY MORNING SEPT 1:

TELLING MORE ABOUT THE 'MAYBE METEOR SHOWER':

Molly has blogged previously (see Aug. 29 'The Aurigid Meteor shower' and Aug 11 'The Perseids are Coming') on the subject of the "possible" meteor shower that will occur later this night, towards dawn tomorrow morning. If it does occur the shower will appear to originate from the constellation Auriga with a peak time at about 11:36 GMT. This will translate into a peak time of 4:36 PDT and slightly earlier in the central Pacific and Alaska. Auriga will be about two thirds up in the northeastern sky on the west coast at this time, but in Alaska and the central Pacific it will be considerably lower towards the horizon. This means that the shower will not be visible in east Asia because Auriga will not have risen at the peak time of the shower- and because the shower has a very short viewing time as compared to other annual meteor showers.

The possibility of an outstanding sight during this year's Aurigid time frame was first proposed 7 years ago by California astronomer Peter Jenniskens and Finnish amateur astonomer Esko Lyytinen. Jenniskens has since collaborated with Jeremie Vaubaillon of Caltech to produce a forecast of an extraordinarily intense meteor shower this night. Another forecast by astronomer Danielle Moser of NASA agrees with the timing but predicts a much less intense number of meteors observable. Only the event will tell which one is right.

The meteors from long period comets which are irregular in appearance are rather unique. Because the comets that produce them are such infrequent visitors to the inner solar system the meteors that they produce contain rather "pristine" materials from the early days of the solar system. They are low in sodium, often penetrate deeper into the atmosphere than usual and at higher speeds (producing more brilliant displays) . The colour of the meteors produced will give clues to their elemental composition. Past observations suggest that the remnants of "pristine cometary crust" will give a greenish hue to many of the meteors observed.

On August 11th Molly mentioned the 'Aurigid Meteor Shower Observing Campaign' that astronomers on the west coast of the USA are mounting to observe this once in a lifetime event. The people involved in this research are looking for the collaboration of amateur astronomers to supplement their own observations. To learn more about this campaign, to participate in the research or to generally learn more about the Aurigid meteor shower go to http://aurigids.seti.org or see our August 11th post.

Happy viewing. Molly won't see this event, but good luck to all the people out in BC.

See also on this blog:

August 29: 'The Aurigid Meteor Shower'.

August 11: 'The Perseids Are Coming'

COMING SOON...MAYBE:

THE AURIGID METEOR SHOWER:

TO BE OR NOT TO BE:

There may be another meteor shower heading our way in the early hours of Saturday, Sept. 1st. I say "maybe" because the Aurigid meteor shower, also known as the alpha-Aurigids, is not one of the regular annual meteor showers produced generally by "short period" comets. The parent body of this "perhaps" shower is a long period comet called Comet Kiess after the astronomer who discovered it in 1911. There is some dispute about the orbital period of this comet. NASA says that the appearance prior to 1911 was in 83 BC (plus or minus "a few centuries"). Others say that the previous appearance of Comet Keiss was in 4 BC plus or minus 40 years. This later reference is to the 'Aurigid Meteor Shower Observing Campaign' that Molly briefly mentioned in a post titled 'The Perseids Are Almost Here' on August 11th. More on this later. The Aurigids are a rare event because the dust trail from long period comets is extremely narrow and it is usually pulled away from the Earth's orbit. Only on occasion does the orbit intersect the dust trail. Jenniskens and Lyytinen have predicted that this year will produce an Aurigid meteor shower that may even eclipse the Perseids earlier this month in intensity.

THE BIG QUESTION...WILL YOU BE ABLE TO SEE THEM ?

Molly has seen quite a few people dropping by her blog trying to find out the time of this event and the possibility of viewing it. Will you be able to see it ? Throughout most of North America and all of South America the answer is unfortunately NO. If the predictions of Jenniskens and Lyytinen are right the meteor shower will have a duration of about 1 and 1/2 hour centred on about 4:33 AM Pacific Daylight Time. This is 11:33 AM in GMT. In most of Asia, Europe, Africa and most of the Americas the Sun will be up at the predicted time. If you want to find what time 11:33 GMT translates into in your time zone refer to the trusty old Time And Date website. This will also give you times for such events as sunrise,sunset, moonrise and moonset. The map pictured above gives a visual of the advance of dawn across North America at the predicted time of the Aurigids. Sunrise here in Winnipeg in the Central Daylight Time zone will occur 6:43 AM, just 10 minutes after the predicted peak time of the shower. Most meteors would be obscured by the gathering light of dawn, though it is theoretically possible that you might catch a few if you began observing at say 5:48 AM. For points east it simply won't happen. The best locations for viewing the Aurigids, if they occur, would be on the Pacific coast, in the Pacific Daylight Time zone. People in the southern hemisphere will be unable to view the event because the constellation will be above the northern horizon.

THE VALUE OF TRYING:

As mentioned above the Aurigids are quite a rare event. In previous appearances of this shower over Europe (1935, 1986,1994) poor viewing conditions and the poor timing of the shower meant that few people were able to observe it. It is estimated that there are only three people alive today who have ever seen this event. If you are lucky enough to see it you will be in a rather select group.

More on the Aurigids later on molly's Blog. Stay tuned.