Possible Draconids tonight, 2004 Oct 5-6

Accoding to dust trail computations by Mikiya Sato
Draconid meteor shower may provide enhanced activity
on 2004 Oct 5, between 22h and 23h UT.

It will be great if a large number of observations
can be collected for the 2004 Draconids. I would
like to give some recommendations for visual obser-
vations.

(i)   The peak time refers to the morning hours of
      Oct 6 over Asian countries.

(ii)  Northern latitudes are favoured as the radiant
      does go very low to the horizon during night.

(iii) The bright gibbous Moon disturbs a lot -- viewing
      fields are probably best towards the south-west
      and west, close to the radiant.

(iv)  The Moon will reduce meteor numbers -- never-
      theless, try to report 10-minute periods.
      Also provide magnitude distributions for the
      same 10-minute periods (Draconids only).

(v)   Draconid meteor move very slowly. The speed
      is a very useful property for shower discrimi-
      nation. If the meteor was of moderate speed, it
      was _never_ a Draconid. If the activity reaches
      only a few per hour, this distinction is crucial.

As usual, observations can be either sent to the
meteorobs@meteorobs.org mailing list, or to me directly
at rarlt@aip.de

Let me wish all of you success, who will try to
watch out for Draconids despite the Moon.


Best wishes,
Rainer


--
Rainer Arlt  --  Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam -- www.aip.de
Visual Commission - International Meteor Organization -- www.imo.net