Monday 11/05/07

If I read correctly, the Taurid Meteor Shower peaks tonight with average of 5 meteors per hour.  I've only seen one good one while viewing Holmes.  These meteors are known in the past to be "fireballs" and "Moon impactors."

Look east-southeast below Orion where "Tarus" is.  Should get better when it rises in the morning!

I saw 3 beauties a little while ago while I was babysitting some long camera exposures. One was over 50° in length and a mini bolide.

Johnm,

Did you catch one on one of your exposures?  The sightings must have been great!  They call these the "slow ones" moving 17 miles per second.  They can leave an ionization trail for as long as 45 minutes.  They may even make a sound many seconds later.  This is a huge field from an old comet "Encke."  It takes several weeks to pass through it.  Stonehenge was said to have been constructed when there was a major peak of these guys.  Next major peak is expected around 3000 AD.  I do not believe they had anything to do with the "Star of Bethlehem!"

Keep us updated!

I was using a film setup and won't know anything for awhile, think I'll finish up the rest of the roll anyway. My FOV in the 560mm lens was pretty small any way and non I saw looked like they were close enough to get caught, I was photographing Holmes.

I saw two out of the corner of my eye. but that's because I thought this was the Leonid meteor shower... So I was looking in the wrong part of the sky... did the Leonid already happen?

I'm going to study this alittle bit more tonight, but I need to correct the peak for the "Taurid Meteor Shower."  The peak in the "south latitudes" was November 5th.  The peak for the north latitudes" is November 12th.  See my post above for info. on this shower.

Look toward constellation "Taurus" late night for these slow, big, bright meteors.  There could be an average of 29 per hour on or near November 12th, but if you see just one good Taurid meteor, it will blow you away!

The peak for Leonids meteor shower is slated for November 18th.  Look toward constellation "Leo" for that one.  15 plus per hour.  So we should have frequent meteors every night through the end of the year!

Dark and exciting skys to you!

 

I saw an absolutely spectacular Taurid last night. It streaked over 20° of sky; it was a brilliant green color that disintigrated into multiple fragments ... from a light polluted city!

I saw several really big ones last night. Didn't know they were Taurids.

Im reading that Comet "Encke" is responsible for these "pebble to bolide" meteors.  It passed through our neck of the solar system close enough to give us the "Taurid meteor Showers."  It has a 3.3 year orbit and has two branches that last through November.  The shower has been with us for as long as 5,000 years.  The comet has been as close as 0.19 AU (17,670,000 mi.) July 5, 1997.  It was discovered in January, 1786 by Pierre Mechain.

"The tail of Comet Encke was temporarily torn off on April 20, 2007 (corrected by me) by magnetic field disturbances caused by a Coronal Mass Ejection(CME) - a blast of solar particles from the sun. The tail will grow back due to the continous shedding of dust and gas by the comet.

Goto: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/news/encke.html

Some consider the Bronze Age breakup of an originally larger comet of which Comet Encke is a member to be responsible for ancient destruction  in the Fertile Cresent, perhaps evidenced by a large (unconfirmed) meteor crater in Iraq (Identified as Umm al Biinni lake. The origin of the "swastika" has also been connected with Comet Encke."  (Wikipedia)

Peak for the Second Branch is tonight!  November 12th.  Hope you see one!