Hit the boonies on May 23-24: a new meteor shower
One of the best parts of boondocking (to me, anyway) is the night sky -- and it looks as though there may be a new meteor shower on the night of May 23-24. I’ve excerpted this material from a couple of sources (mostly the Sky and Telescope website), and my comments are in parentheses:
May 24, 2014: This year there's a brash newcomer to the traditional list of meteor showers. Ever since 2012, solar-system dynamicists have been keeping close tabs on periodic comet 209P/LINEAR, which came its closest to the Sun in 2009 and will do so again this May 6th. They now expect Earth to be clipped by a dense stream of particles shed by this comet. Their predictions span a wide range — from 100 to an amazing 1,000 per hour.
One point of agreement is that the peak should occur between 6:30 and 7:40 UT (which is, I think, 11:30 pm PDT on May 23 to 12:40 am on May 24), which is very good news for North Americans. On that date the Moon is just a few days from new, and the shower's radiant is very far north, near +79° declination, in the dim constellation of Camelopardalis, the Giraffe. So skywatchers in southern Canada and the continental U.S. will be especially well positioned to watch the sky show.
(The authors of a scientific article) suggest that the comet has been producing relatively large particles (on the order of 1 mm), meaning that the upcoming meteor shower may be chock-full of bright meteors. But their work also places limits on the overall rate of meteors, suggesting a rate of 200 per hour under ideal conditions.
May 24, 2014: This year there's a brash newcomer to the traditional list of meteor showers. Ever since 2012, solar-system dynamicists have been keeping close tabs on periodic comet 209P/LINEAR, which came its closest to the Sun in 2009 and will do so again this May 6th. They now expect Earth to be clipped by a dense stream of particles shed by this comet. Their predictions span a wide range — from 100 to an amazing 1,000 per hour.
One point of agreement is that the peak should occur between 6:30 and 7:40 UT (which is, I think, 11:30 pm PDT on May 23 to 12:40 am on May 24), which is very good news for North Americans. On that date the Moon is just a few days from new, and the shower's radiant is very far north, near +79° declination, in the dim constellation of Camelopardalis, the Giraffe. So skywatchers in southern Canada and the continental U.S. will be especially well positioned to watch the sky show.
(The authors of a scientific article) suggest that the comet has been producing relatively large particles (on the order of 1 mm), meaning that the upcoming meteor shower may be chock-full of bright meteors. But their work also places limits on the overall rate of meteors, suggesting a rate of 200 per hour under ideal conditions.
