Taurid Meteor Shower

[Hitchhiker]

There's an article on space.com about bright fireballs associated with the Taurid meteor shower being seen.

It seems 2005 may be a 'swarm' year when the Earth intercepts a thicker than usual patch of particles from the parent stream. This could lead to some brighter fireballs. The shower peaks between Nov 5 and 12 so may be worth a look if you have clear skies.

Here is a link to the article:

http://space.com/scienceastronomy/051103_taurid_fireballs.html

[iceman]

I saw some nice southern Taurids (and a few fireballs) at the ballarat star camp. After Dave47Tuc's talk about the leonids I took particular notice of these :)

I saw about 10-12 throughout the night but spent most of the time looking into an eyepiece rather than looking up :)

[h0ughy]

how much time was there between these sightings Mike several minutes or just a short period of time during which you noticed them?

[iceman]

That was over the course of a few hours.. but as I said, there was most likely a lot more I didn't see as I was engrossed in a galaxy or something :)

[h0ughy]

Well if the weather clears this might be a nice time to do some long exposure photography on the EQ6 to see if one can capture a glimpse of one or two bright ones

[rumples riot]

While we were up in the Flinders there was Bright Fire ball on the last night. Caught the attention of everyone there. Might be a good season for it this time.

[Moonman]

I saw one earlier this week Tuesday night I think. It came in from the East and seemed quite low and was extremely brilliant in effect. :scared: I thought for a moment I could hear it as well but I'm not sure if this was just passing traffic etc. :confuse2:

Hope to see some more :nerd:

[xrekcor]

Houghy,

That was the last thing I was watching right before I crashed out on my observing chair
last night. They were coming in spits and spurts.

regards,CS

[h0ughy]

Nice to see you so "dead"icated and have an eye on the job :lol: For the record were they fast, how high and how many??

[xrekcor]

Houghy,

lol Ummm errrr..... they were long, not as bright as most showers I've seen, but there
were the odd bright one. Fast? not sure what you mean, unless you mean long and
drawn out as opposed to short and zippy. I would say in between. Maybe a half
dozen over 30 minutes.

[h0ughy]

thanks Rob ;)

[astro-angel]

Hi guys and girls,
Astro-angel would like to know which direction is the best to to see the shower from i live in South west rocks which is on the mid north coast of N.S.W and also the best veiwing times as i would really love to see this awesome site, im probably looking at tomorrow night.
If any one can help thanks in advance
astro-angel:help3:

[[1ponders]]

Hi astro-angel.

As a general rule meteor showers "tend" to have higher hourly rates and be a bit more spectacular in the morning hours. As the earth rotates we face more towards the direction the earth is moving. This means that we moving directly into the particles as they hang in space. So if you want to get the best view of the Taurids then find Taurus in the sky in the wee hours of the morning and the shower will radiate out from a point near that constellation. Without checking for exact position from a planetarium program or planisphere, I would imagine atm that that would be in a north westerly direction before dawn. If you want to look at night then Taurus is almost directly north around midnight. Though I've only glimpsed in over the past few weeks :cloudy: :windy: :cloudy:

[ving]

hiya asto angel, like what paul said :)

I used to go to SW Rocks heaps as a kid (about 20-30 yrs ago)
it hasnt changed much from when i waas there last, 3 yrs ago.
beautiful area! :)

[fringe_dweller]

This is true as a general rule - the usual simple analogy that is Very commonly used is that of a car (earth) driving along at speed and bugs - the majority or really all the of the bugs are gonna splatter on the front windshield and front of the car of course, I dont think I have ever seen bugs splatter on the rear window!
Serious scientific Meteor observing/counting is a lot more complicated than you would think at first.
For example - Take these so called Taurids. There really are a 'shower' that goes on all year called the antehelions - this taken from Robert Lunsford's AMS page http://www.amsmeteors.org/lunsford/

"The Anthelion radiant is now centered at 03:56 (059) +20. This area of the sky is located in central Taurus, five degrees southeast of the Pleiades (Seven Sisters) open star cluster. Since this radiant is large and diffuse, any slow to medium speed meteor from eastern Aries or Taurus could be a candidate for this shower. The center of this area is best placed near 0100 local standard time when it lies on the meridian and is highest in the sky. At this time of year the normal anthelion activity is combined with material from comet 2P Encke, producing the highest anthelion activity of the year. Rates should be near four per hour from the Northern Hemisphere and three per hour for observers south of the equator. With an entry velocity of 30 km/sec., the average anthelion meteor would be of medium-slow speed.

Unlike most of the annual showers the antihelion source is produced by debris from unknown objects orbiting in a direct motion like the earth. These objects are most likely asteroids, which produce stony and metallic debris whose density is much greater than material produced by comets. There is also the possibility that some of this activity may be caused by the “Jupiter family of comets”, comets which have been altered by Jupiter’s gravity into much shorter orbits. This material collides with the earth on the inbound portion of its orbit, before its closest approach to the sun. Therefore we best see them just after midnight when we are facing the direction from which this activity appears. The antihelion source is active all year from an area of the sky nearly opposite that of the sun. The center of this source will move approximately one degree eastward per day and travels through many different constellations over the course of a year. It may make sense to list these meteors as anthelions or "ANT" but a majority of meteor organizations prefer that you list them from the constellation in which the radiant is currently located or the constellation where the shower reaches maximum activity. Those who send their reports to the International Meteor Organization (IMO) should list these meteors as Southern (STA) or Northern Taurids (NTA), depending on whether the meteors radiate from south or north of the ecliptic."
So therefore the best activity for this 'shower' is mostly around midnight - 1am - not the very early morning hours so much which is the usual norm of course. A classic possible example of an ANT was Rowena's awesome meteor shot (taken at around 11pm local time) last oct Rowena's meteor (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=4528&highlight=meteor)
One also has to very careful not to include sporadics (the mongrels or mutts of the serious meteor observers world) in with the pedigree poodles (ordained meteor shower members) hehe - well thats how it apears to me after 5-6 years of closely following 'meteorobs' list.
RL states in his current page "Sporadic rates seen from the Southern Hemisphere have reached a minimum and will slowly rise during the remainder of the year. From south of the equator one would expect to see approximately six random meteors per hour during the morning hours and two per hour during the evening."
The speed of the meteor is a HUGE determining factor as to wether the fireball or meteor you have seen could be a member of a known and studied shower, as well as other factors like colour, starting distance from radiant, distance travelled. So you can see that proper scientific meteor observing is much more complicated than people would think possibly. But that doesnt mean you cant just enjoy the show :) - but you must be very careful about what you say is a definite shower member.

[Greg Bryant]

If you're interested in some heavy reading, the original paper by David Asher which predicts the fireballs for this year can be found here:

http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1993QJRAS..34..481A

It's immersed in a discussion on the long-held views of Asher and Clube about the influence of comets.

Trivia Note: The 2nd author, S. Clube, is the brother of a rugby coach I had at high school. Small world!

[RapidEye]

I was at our annual dark sky star party last week and we had some AMAZING skies. To top it all off, we had exploding fireballs all night long on the 2nd. At least one an hour, many bright enough to read by!

[h0ughy]

Did anyone get any wide sky shots of any of these?

[fringe_dweller]

:eyepop: *gulp* Thanks Greg! damn good read :D I had forgot that these fireballs are relatives of the Tunguska meteoroid - I think i have seen that paper linked on meteorobs before.
I think I like the ANT's when they are Sagittarids the most - when they *appear* to come out of the guts of the milky way overhead - that is an awesome sight that really sticks in your head - and they are always bright all year of course.
Rapideye, I have seen nights when the sporadics and spacecrap can produce at least a fireball an hour quite often.