The Observatory MPC J87 at La Cañada participates in the studies on minor bodies promoted by the Group on Meteorites, Minor Bodies, and Planetary Sciences of the Institute of Space Sciences (CSIC-IEEC).


martes, 17 de noviembre de 2009

Taurid fireball, an appetizer to Leonids

Orion witnesses this beautiful fireball, apparently coming from the constellation of Taurus, which flashed over the Ávila skies on the night of Nov 16/17, the south west looking video camera at La Cañada grabbed this likely taurid meteor which appears heavily fragmented at the final portion of its trail.

Other video stations (UCM) of the spanish meteor network (SPMN) seem to have recorded the event.

Leonids 2009 :
According to IAU CBET 2019: 20091116, P. Jenniskens, SETI Institute, reports that the earth is predicted to encounter the 1466 and 1533 dust ejecta of comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle on 2009Nov. 17d21h43m-50m UT. This may result in a brief (about 1 hr) duration outburst of Leonid meteors with peak Zenith Hourly Rate, ZHR, > 100 meteors per hour. The best viewing will be from sites in mid-Asia, including China, Indochina, India, Nepal, Mongolia, and Indonesia.