Saturday, September 1, 2007

Surprise meteor shower results


I heard that there might be a suprise meteor shower called the Aurigids on the morning of 9/1/2007. It was possible due to an old comet trail.

While the projections to see it were West of the Rockies, I decided to take a chance in Olathe, KS (near Kansas City, KS).
From 1-2 am I saw nothing but the bright moon. I then went to sleep after setting the alarm. hoping to get up at 4:30 am.
The alarm did not go off but I got up with surprise at 5:55 am. I got dressed, took out the lawn chair and then starred upward to see if I could catch any Aurigid "falling stars."
Within minutes, I saw a bright yellow one. In the next 30 minutes before it got too light, I saw 4 Aurigids.
Here are the results and the plot map I drew where the meteors sped across the sky and additional information.


aurigids 9/1/07 Olathe. KS Dr. Eric Flescher (kcstarguy@aol.com)
s or Aurigid time color magnitude length degrees duration
1 A 6:01 Yellow 1 6 0.25
2 A 6:11 white 2 10 0.5
3 A 6:19 white 3 20 0.5
4 A 6:19 yellow 2.5 11 0.5