Results of the IMO Video Meteor Network - October 2006
======================================================
Before looking at the October results, I will give a brief addendum to
September. After entering the data of the remaining three cameras it became
clear, that we indeed managed to observe in more than 2000 hours. In the end
there were 8761 meteors recorded in 2005 hours effective observing time.
The exiting question is: How long will this record hold? Well, I can answer
that immediately: Exactly one month, because the ususual sunny and warm
September was followed by an even more unusual sunny and warm October in most
parts of Europe. In the last week of October, we even had according to
meteorological defintion a summer day with more than 25 deg centigrade
in south Germany.
What did that mean for the observers: Many clear nights, of course, and
thanks to the longer nights and active meteor showers (combined with an
unusual strong Orionid maximum) a still bigger yield than in September.
Let's start again with the pure figures. For simplicity I will mark all records
with an exclamation mark in brackets. 15 observers with a total of 22 video
system joined the network in October - just as in September. At the best night,
(October 11), 18 cameras were active (!). An overall of nine cameras recorded
in 20 or more nights (!), an ten cameras yielded more than a hundred hours
effective observing time (!). Flavio Castellani even managed to collect 200
hours. Overall, in every fourth night we could collect more than 100 hours of
video observations (!), which is amazing given that the day has only 24
hours. :)
For the first time since the great Leonid storms, four cameras recorded a total
of more than 1000 meteors (!), among them for the first time a non-intensified
camera (Mincam1 with 1125 meteors!). Bob Lunsford observed the Orionid maximum
from a dark desert site and managed to record 550 meteors at the Orionid
maximum - far more than was ever observed in a single night after the Leonids
storms and the observations of Rob McNaught in the Australian outback. Even
three nights after the maximum, Sirko Molau managed to record another 400
meteors at October 24/25. In three October nights we recorded more than 1000
meteors (!).
After all this it is no wonder, that also the monthly totals dwarfed everything
we had before: With over 2100 observing hours, September was outnumbered by
more than a hundred hours, and the total of almost 14000 meteors is an increase
of almost 50% compared to the previously best result of October 2005.
It turns out, that by the end of October we collected already more observing
time and meteors in 2006 than in the best previous year 2003. The meteor
database is growing faster than ever and I am looking forward to the next run of
the automated meteor shower search.
But also away from the plain figures and well-known showers, October presented
two highlights. Most of you will remember the October-Camelopardalids from last
year: In the evening of October 5, 2005, Jarmo Moilanen detected a short
outburst of an previously unknown shower, that could be confirmed right
thereafter by our camera network.
In this year, Esko Lyytinen pointed out, that the OCA could be an annual
shower that might be active in the morning hours of October 6 again. His
prediction was based on the observation, that forward scatter radio data from
not only 2005 but also the years before showed an excess of overdense echoes
(i.e. of meteors with an especially strong signal).
Even though our Finish observers were almost completely clouded out in the
night in question, there were a number of camera stations with clear skies
thanks to the large extent of the IMO network. They could observe this shower
once more and confirm the prediction of Esko. The following table gives
the absolute number of sporadic meteors, October-Camelopardalids and other
shower meteors, and their counts normalized by the effective observing time:
Time Oct 5/6 Teff SPO OCA other
[UT] [h] [#] [#/h] [#] [#/h] [#] [#/h]
--------------------------------------------------------
20:00-21:00 2.67 3 1.13 0 0.00 0 0.00
21:00-22:00 5.62 12 2.14 6 1.07 3 0.53
22:00-23:00 6.47 9 1.39 2 0.31 10 1.55
23:00-00:00 6.50 19 2.92 1 0.15 15 2.31
00:00-01:00 7.70 25 3.25 8 1.04 32 4.16
01:00-02:00 7.40 42 5.68 12 1.62 18 2.43
02:00-03:00 7.00 54 7.71 11 1.57 18 2.57
03:00-04:00 6.00 51 8.50 5 0.83 30 5.00
04:00-05:00 1.53 12 7.83 0 0.00 3 1.96
--------------------------------------------------------
Sum 49.88 226 44 129
The October-Camelopardalids showed the same characteritics as in 2005:
- an extremely short duration of approx. 3 hours FHWH (full width at half
maximum)
- almost exclusively bright meteors, such that the shower was much most
prominent in the data of the non-intensified cameras
- the maximum virtually at the same solar longitude
Whereas at first only the main maximum at 1-3 UT became visible, the data from
other cameras send in later seem to confirm that there might have been
already an earlier peak in the 21-22 UT time frame.
Anyway, we can conclude with some certaintly, that the October-Camelopardalids
are an annual stream of extremely short duration, that consists almost
exclusively of large meteoroids. The archive of the IMO video network gives
only on more observing series at the solar longitude in question: On October
5/6, 2001, three cameras (AVIS, VK1, FAMOS) recorded all together 19 sporadics,
11 other shower members, and 3 OCAs.
A few days later, the next unknown shower visited us Earthlings. In
mid-October I was contacted by SonotaCo, the Japanese programmers of the
well-known UFOCapture software. He informed me, that S. Uehara, a member of
the Nippon Meteor Society, detected an outburst of an unknown shower with the
radiant in Ursa Major in the data of the Japanese SonotaCo Video Network.
From eight double station meteors between October 12 and 17, a first orbit
could be calculated leading to a radiant at alpha=146 deg, delta=65 deg and a
preatmospheric velocity of 53 km/s.
To answer his question, whether the shower is also present in our video data,
I first searched the list of meteor showers I presented at the last IMC, but
without success. Then I checked with more success the radiants in the
individual nights. The shower, that we later gave the preliminary name
tau-Ursa-Majorids (TUM), showed the third strongest radiant right after ORI and
STA in the solar longitude intervals 201 to 204 (next table). It only escaped
the meteor shower search becauce the radiant was found in five consecutive
solar longitude intervals, whereas the minimum duration in the shower search
was set to six.
Solar Longitude Right Ascension Declination Velocity Meteors
[deg] [deg] [deg] [km/s] [#]
--------------------------------------------------------------
201 (200-202) 142.6 +64 50 81
202 (201-203) 143.7 +64 51 110
203 (202-204) 144.9 +64 51 113
204 (203-205) 147.3 +62.5 51 92
---------------------------------------------------------------
Up to 2005, more than 200 tau-Ursa-Majorids could already be recorded by the
IMO network (the figures above give a larger sum, because they were computed
with overlaping solar longitude intervals). The radiant positions agrees well
with the Japanese values and the velocity is slightly underestimated, just as
it was observed for other known showers. The radiant drift is well visible in
the data of the IMO network.
The automated meteor shower search found that the shower somewhat resembles the
Northern Toroidal sporadic source. However, since the radiant obtained by the
Japanese observers is quite compact, this occurs to me more like a by-chance
alignment.
In the end I checked, whether the tau-Ursa-Majorids were also found in the
2006 data of the IMO network. Indeed, more than 100 shower members could be
recorded between October 12 and 18. Maximum activity occured on October 15/16.
At the same time, the activity of the Orionids increased as expected, whereas
the Taurid activity remained almost constant and the epsilon-Geminids were also
slowly gaining strength (neglecting a peak on October 13/14).
The last table gives the absolute number of sporadics, shower meteors and
tau-Ursa-Majorids per night, and normalized by the number of sporadic meteors.
Date SPO ORI TAU EGE TUM
2006 [#] [#] ORI/SPO [#] TAU/SPO [#] EGE/SPO [#] TUM/SPO
----------------------------------------------------------------------
12./13.10. 162 16 0.10 52 0.32 13 0.08 13 0.08
13./14.10. 37 8 0.22 12 0.32 9 0.24 2 0.05
14./15.10. 216 50 0.23 63 0.29 19 0.09 23 0.11
15./16.10. 263 75 0.29 81 0.31 34 0.13 40 0.15
16./17.10. 327 118 0.36 102 0.31 38 0.12 22 0.07
17./18.10. 278 136 0.49 89 0.32 31 0.11 20 0.07
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum 1084 379 335 122 105
1. Observers
============
Code Name Place Camera FOV LM Nights Time Meteors
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR Benitez-S. Las Palmas TIMES4 (1.5/50) 20 dg 3 mag 18 51.8 h 78
TIMES5 (0.95/50) 10 dg 3 mag 17 54.2 h 76
CASFL Castellani Monte Baldo BMH1 (0.8/6) 55 dg 3 mag 26 200.3 h 667
ELTMA Eltri Venezia MET38 (0.8/3.8) 80 dg 3 mag 7 67.1 h 255
EVAST Evans Moreton RF1 (0.8/12) 25 dg 5 mag 10 77.1 h 378
HINWO Hinz Brannenburg AKM2 (0.85/25) 32 dg 5 mag 20 160.1 h 1660
KACJA Kac Kostanjevec METKA (0.8/8) 42 dg 2 mag 25 143.3 h 418
Kamnik REZIKA (0.8/6) 55 dg 3 mag 17 103.1 h 705
LUNRO Lunsford Chula Vista BOCAM (1.4/50) 60 dg 6 mag 15 97.7 h 1901
MOLSI Molau Seysdorf AVIS2 (1.4/50) 60 dg 6 mag 20 143.8 h 2872
MINCAM1 (0.8/6) 55 dg 3 mag 28 192.9 h 1125
Ketzuer REMO1 (3.8/0.8) 80 dg 3 mag 26 132.2 h 647
SLAST Slavec Ljubljana KAYAK1 (1.8/28) 50 dg 4 mag 24 129.4 h 441
SPEUL Sperberg Salzwedel AKM1 (0.85/2) 32 dg 5 mag 2 6.2 h 17
STOEN Stomeo Scorze MIN38 (0.8/3.8) 80 dg 3 mag 8 67.7 h 384
STORO Stork Ondrejov OND1 (1.4/50) 55 dg 6 mag 3 20.1 h 499
STRJO Strunk Leopoldshoehe MINCAM2 (0.8/6) 55 dg 3 mag 24 117.0 h 407
MINCAM3 (0.8/8) 42 dg 4 mag 4 30.8 h 48
MINCAM4 (1.4/2) 180 dg 0 mag 17 79.1 h 50
MINCAM5 (0.8/6) 55 dg 3 mag 7 45.8 h 309
TRIMI Triglav Velenje SRAKA (0.8/6) 55 dg 3 mag 21 153.7 h 679
YRJIL Yrjola Kuusankoski FINEXCAM (0.8/6) 55 dg 3 mag 11 43.4 h 333
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum 31 2116.6h 13949
2. Observing Times (h)
======================
Oct 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR 3.0 4.2 - - - - - - 0.3 - - 0.4 0.8 0.4 2.4
1.8 - - - - - - - 2.1 - - 2.2 0.5 - 4.5
CASFL - 0.5 1.5 9.4 9.4 5.2 10.7 9.5 9.5 9.5 9.5 9.5 8.5 2.0 11.0
ELTRI - - - - - 6.3 - - 9.9 9.9 10.1 10.1 - - 10.4
EVAST - 8.2 7.8 6.2 - 4.1 - - - - 8.3 - 4.3 - -
HINWO - - - - - 0.8 - 10.4 8.8 10.6 6.6 7.5 - 0.8 7.4
KACJA 2.0 2.7 - - 6.1 5.2 1.2 4.2 4.9 7.5 5.2 4.2 - 1.9 5.6
- - - - 6.8 - - 5.4 10.7 10.1 2.2 7.7 - 6.5 3.9
LUNRO 5.3 - 10.1 4.0 - 1.7 4.7 8.4 - 6.8 2.2 10.7 - - -
MOLSI - - - - 7.2 3.1 4.7 8.5 10.0 10.4 7.4 2.3 - 11.0 10.1
0.5 6.5 - 0.6 12.1 3.4 6.2 11.3 11.4 1.4 7.0 3.5 - 11.6 9.4
6.4 0.3 0.2 3.3 5.4 - 4.6 8.1 8.1 11.1 6.4 - - - 2.2
SLAST 3.5 1.4 - - 3.0 2.0 1.3 4.8 1.8 1.0 1.2 - - 4.0 9.0
SPEUL - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
STOEN - - - - - 6.9 - 7.6 - 10.5 10.5 10.4 3.8 - -
STORO - - - - 3.8 - - - - - - - - - -
STRJO 0.9 0.7 - 1.9 - - 8.3 10.5 0.6 10.8 8.3 - - - 6.8
- - - - - - - - - - 8.3 - - - -
- - - - - - 0.9 6.7 - 7.5 6.4 - - - 1.1
- - - - - - 0.9 6.8 - 7.5 6.4 - - - -
TRIMI 4.8 - - - 8.1 - - - - 6.5 8.1 6.9 0.2 7.6 8.7
YRJIL - - - - 1.2 3.3 - 0.4 - - 0.7 6.1 2.8 3.7 -
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum 28.2 24.5 19.6 25.4 63.1 42.0 43.5102.6 78.1121.1114.8 81.5 20.9 49.5 92.5
Oct 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR 4.1 - 3.4 3.6 5.7 5.9 4.1 4.9 4.0 - 0.3 - - 1.7 2.6 -
4.8 2.1 5.4 2.1 - 4.4 3.6 5.5 4.6 - 0.7 1.6 - 4.7 3.6 -
CASFL 5.0 1.0 5.0 - - 9.2 2.5 - 10.0 11.0 11.0 6.9 11.0 11.0 11.0 -
ELTRI - 10.4 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
EVAST - - - - - 8.8 - - 8.4 - 11.5 - - - - 10.1
HINWO 11.0 11.0 7.5 2.6 11.1 10.2 10.2 - 10.4 9.2 11.4 1.4 - - 11.2 -
KACJA - 8.8 9.8 4.4 9.1 7.6 6.9 0.5 - 8.4 8.5 7.6 5.2 7.6 8.2 -
8.2 10.5 0.5 1.9 - - 4.8 - 5.6 - 11.4 5.3 - 1.6 - -
LUNRO - - - 7.9 5.8 5.8 5.9 9.5 8.9 - - - - - - -
MOLSI 6.7 7.5 4.4 2.9 7.8 8.2 7.6 - 8.1 8.0 7.9 - - - - -
11.7 5.0 3.7 3.0 8.8 7.1 4.1 0.5 12.2 10.2 12.3 8.8 - 6.7 11.8 2.1
6.6 11.6 8.2 6.3 3.0 9.2 2.1 2.5 3.9 8.1 8.2 1.7 0.4 0.7 - 3.6
SLAST 10.2 9.0 10.3 3.5 - 7.5 7.5 - 4.9 9.0 11.3 8.2 3.5 8.5 3.0 -
SPEUL - - - - - - - - - 4.0 2.2 - - - - -
STOEN - 10.4 - - - 7.6 - - - - - - - - - -
STORO - - - 4.5 8.4 - 3.4 - - - - - - - - -
STRJO 11.1 11.2 3.0 4.5 2.2 3.7 0.8 1.0 2.0 6.4 7.1 4.8 - 0.7 3.7 6.0
10.3 10.9 - - - - - - - 0.5 - - - - - -
11.1 11.2 2.6 - 1.6 5.2 - 1.2 2.0 5.0 5.1 5.3 - - 2.0 4.2
10.9 11.2 2.1 - - - - - - - - - - - - -
TRIMI 9.3 6.6 9.4 6.4 5.9 6.9 9.2 - - 8.0 9.4 7.3 7.0 9.1 8.3 -
YRJIL - - 3.8 - - - - - - 4.2 - - - 11.2 6.0 -
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum 121.0138.4 79.1 53.6 69.4107.3 72.7 25.6 85.0 92.0118.3 58.9 27.1 63.5 71.4 26.0
3. Results (Meteors)
====================
Oct 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR 6 7 - - - - - - 1 - - 1 1 1 5
3 - - - - - - - 3 - - 3 1 - 6
CASFL - 1 6 18 21 8 27 25 26 30 30 29 30 8 52
ELTRI - - - - - 7 - - 39 46 27 34 - - 57
EVAST - 29 36 12 - 27 - - - - 32 - 7 - -
HINWO - - - - - 1 - 38 58 94 49 49 - 1 43
KACJA 8 3 - - 13 14 1 14 14 14 7 4 - 3 7
- - - - 47 - - 31 53 47 6 21 - 30 19
LUNRO 13 - 61 10 - 4 12 19 - 10 5 55 - - -
MOLSI - - - - 88 26 27 61 101 101 43 19 - 203 224
1 11 - 5 49 13 33 31 35 44 11 5 - 46 48
14 1 1 10 18 - 24 34 30 50 28 - - - 17
SLAST 2 1 - - 2 1 2 4 3 1 1 - - 21 35
SPEUL - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
STOEN - - - - - 15 - 26 - 68 53 41 19 - -
STORO - - - - 120 - - - - - - - - - -
STRJO 3 4 - 7 - - 22 23 3 20 22 - - - 29
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - 4 - - - -
- - - - - - 2 51 - 45 31 - - - 2
TRIMI 5 - - - 16 - - - - 12 19 15 2 19 23
YRJIL - - - - 4 17 - 4 - - 2 30 10 42 -
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum 55 57 104 62 378 133 150 361 366 582 370 306 70 374 567
Oct 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BENOR 7 - 4 3 11 1 10 9 5 - 1 - - 2 3 -
7 5 6 4 - 5 5 7 7 - 1 2 - 7 4 -
CASFL 7 3 8 - - 67 2 - 58 59 34 32 34 19 33 -
ELTRI - 45 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
EVAST - - - - - 110 - - 27 - 54 - - - - 44
HINWO 100 164 85 3 190 139 77 - 207 62 149 16 - - 135 -
KACJA - 20 21 8 65 57 33 3 - 31 24 12 7 17 18 -
79 117 2 6 - - 23 - 94 - 102 18 - 10 - -
LUNRO - - - 68 377 561 444 150 112 - - - - - - -
MOLSI 299 151 118 100 169 198 88 - 402 224 230 - - - - -
75 29 25 31 78 75 23 1 153 62 88 61 - 17 60 15
28 57 47 26 12 72 12 14 34 45 30 16 1 2 - 24
SLAST 51 40 53 3 - 49 20 - 7 28 56 14 9 25 13 -
SPEUL - - - - - - - - - 7 10 - - - - -
STOEN - 69 - - - 93 - - - - - - - - - -
STORO - - - 66 233 - 80 - - - - - - - - -
STRJO 41 22 14 12 9 32 3 4 12 39 21 31 - 3 10 21
33 14 - - - - - - 1 - - - - - - -
6 1 2 - 6 14 - 1 1 1 1 9 - - 2 2
119 55 4 - - - - - - - - - - - - -
TRIMI 42 18 24 24 91 123 58 - - 33 44 23 15 43 30 -
YRJIL - - 30 - - - - - - 61 - - - 85 48 -
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sum 894 810 443 354 1241 1596 878 189 1120 652 845 234 66 230 356 106
Sirko Molau, 2006/11/21