[IAUC] CBET 1019: 20070802 : PERSEID METEORS 2007

[IAUC mailing list]

                                                  Electronic Telegram No. 1019
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
M.S. 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
IAUSUBS en CFA.HARVARD.EDU or FAX 617-495-7231 (subscriptions)
CBAT en CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science)
URL http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html


PERSEID METEORS 2007
   P. Jenniskens, SETI Institute, reports that the Perseid meteors from comet
109P/Swift-Tuttle should peak at ZHR = 80 +/- 20 meteors/hr on 2007 Aug.
13d10h UT (Jenniskens 2006, Meteor Showers and Their Parent Comets, Cambridge
Univ. Press, p. 397).  Jenniskens adds that a possible encounter with a
younger filament component is expected around Aug. 13d04h, with a FWHM = 1.0
hr; this younger filament is an accumulation of many trails over a period of
time, thought to be dust moving in mean-motion resonances and being mostly
responsible for the Perseid outbursts of the 1989-1997 period.  Peak activity
can not yet be predicted reliably.  Also, I. Sato has identified a weak
encounter with the 1479 dust trail of comet 109P on Aug. 12d22h55m.  E.
Lyytinen calculates a peak time at Aug. 13d00h27m, while J. Vaubaillon has the
peak at Aug. 12d22h42m and an estimated duration of FWHM = 0.49 hr.
Jenniskens estimates a peak rate of only about ZHR = 20 meteors per hour for
this dust-trail encounter, which occurs on top of the stronger annual shower
activity.


NOTE: These 'Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams' are sometimes
      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2007 CBAT
2007 August 2                    (CBET 1019)              Daniel W. E. Green