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05/23/2014 – Ephemeris – Possible Meteor Storm overnight tonight
Ephemeris for Friday, May 23rd. Today the sun will be up for 15 hours and 5 minutes, setting at 9:12. The moon, 2 days past last quarter, will rise at 3:45 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:05.
If you want to see a possible meteor storm, go out tomorrow morning and find a dark location. The meteors will be seen all over the sky, but will seem to come from the north. The Grand Traverse Astronomical Society will be at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore at the Dune Climb with telescopes starting at 10 p.m. tonight, weather permitting, to enjoy the other wonders of the sky while we wait for the meteor storm to start. Dress warmly, bring a blanket or lounge chair so you can comfortably look up. The first meteors may show by 1:40 a.m. but the peak activity is expected about 3 a.m., but that estimate may be off by an hour or more. Check bobmoler.wordpress.com for cloud and meteor status from noon through 4 a.m. if it’s clear. The latter part depends on getting a decent data signal. The dunes seem to be the end of the world as far as cell phone service goes. I might have to climb the dune to get a good signal.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Remember these meteors should be visible from anywhere in the continental United States. Convert the times to your location. 3 a.m. EDT is 7 hours UT.
Start the evening tonight with a talk by Dr. Tyler Nordgren, astronomer, artist and dark sky advocate at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Philip A. Hart Visitor Center in Empire at 7 p.m. Afterward he will be signing copies of his beautiful new poster See the Stars from Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore featuring the Great and Little Bear constellations and the bluffs of the Sleeping Bear Dunes and the Manitou Islands. After that, weather permitting see the sunset from many of the park’s locations, then, for the hardy, settle down for an all night vigil for the possible meteor storm with the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society at the Dune Climb. We’ll be viewing out the planets and the other wonders of the spring and summer skies as we wait for the meteors to appear.
The expected radiant for the meteors of the May Camelopardalids, the meteors from the comet 209P/LINEAR at 3 a.m. on May 24, 2014. Credit: My LookingUp program.
Same chart as above but black on white to save ink if you print it.
Here’s the culprit: Comet 209P/LINEAR
This May 17, 2014 image of Comet 209/LINEAR is the average of 5, 180-second exposures, taken remotely with the PlaneWave 17″+ Paramount ME+STL-6303E robotic unit of the Virtual Telescope Project. The telescope tracked the comet, so stars are trailing. This comet has the potential to generate an exceptional meteor shower (Camelopardalids) on May 24, 2014. Gianluca Masi / Virtual Telescope Project
Image and caption above from the Planetary Society blog from Bruce Betts: http://www.planetary.org/blogs/bruce-betts/20140522-one-night-only-a-new-meteor.html.
Want to find the comet?
Finder chart for Comet 209P/LINEAR for 11 p.m. Note the dates are UT, 11 p.m. the 23rd is 3 a.m. UT on the 24th. Created using Cartes du Ciel (Sky Charts).
Ephemeris of positions for Comet 209P/LINEAR for May 20, 2014 to June 8, 2014 from the Minor Planet Center.
Got to http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/MPEph/MPEph.html to print your own ephemeris for this or any comet. For purposes of this comet the comet name is: 209P/LINEAR.
All these images may be enlarged by clicking on them.
Note that:
Delta is the distance from Earth in Astronomical Units (AU)
r is the comet’s distance from the sun in AU.
El is the elongation in degrees from the sun
Ph. is the phase angle, not a big deal for comets.
m2 is the magnitude of the comet’s coma. Comets appear dimmer than their magnitude suggests.
05/19/2014 – Ephemeris – The meteor storm and an all night star party to view it
Ephemeris for Monday, May 19th. Today the sun will be up for 14 hours and 57 minutes, setting at 9:08. The moon, 2 days before last quarter, will rise at 1:33 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:09.
This will be a first for the Grand Traverse Astronomical Society, an all night star party this Friday night and Saturday morning. The reason is the predicted meteor storm Saturday morning from Comet 209P/LINEAR, discovered in 2004. Near a I can tell no one has seen a single meteor from this comet. However several astronomers who work on cometary debris have some confidence that debris from this comet which orbits the Sun every 5 years will cross the Earth orbit on the morning of May 24th around 3 a.m. give or take. The hardiest of the GTAS members will be at the Dune Climb of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore all night. Join us if you can.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The expected radiant for the meteors of the May Camelopardids, the meteors from the comet 209P/LINEAR at 3 a.m. on May 24, 2014. Credit: My LookingUp program.
Earth’s motion in respect to the expected meteoroid stream from Comet 209P/LINEAR. Calculations by Jeremie Vaubaillon. From meteor.seti.org.
05/15/2014 – Ephemeris – Comet 209P/LINEAR and the meteor storm
Ephemeris for Thursday, May 15th. Today the sun will be up for 14 hours and 49 minutes, setting at 9:03. The moon, 1 day past full, will rise at 10:10 this evening. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:13. | A possible meteor storm is predicted for the morning of Saturday May 24th, between the hours of 3 and 4 a.m. with the first meteors showing up shortly after 1:30 a.m. and building after that. Meteor showers are produced by the debris of comets. The comet that will be responsible is 209P/LINEAR discovered in 2004 by Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research, though the comet has been in and near its present orbit for centuries. The comet will pass closest to the Earth on May 28th, it will be very dim. The debris cloud will be ahead if it, crossing the earth’s orbit 4 days earlier. The Grand Traverse Astronomical Society is attempting to set up an all night star party/meteor watch. Stay tuned.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
Comet 209P/LINEAR crosses the Earth’s orbit behind the Earth around May 28, 2014. The “stilts” on the comet’s orbit show that it is coming from north of the Earth’s orbital plane. Credit: Bob Moler’s LookingUp program.
The expected radiant for the meteors of the May Camelopardids, the meteors from the comet 209P/LINEAR at 3 a.m. on May 24, 2014. Credit: My LookingUp program.
05/13/2014 – Ephemeris – A possible meteor storm for the early morning hours of May 24th
Ephemeris for Tuesday, May 13th. Today the sun will be up for 14 hours and 44 minutes, setting at 9:01. The moon, 1 day before full, will set at 6:16 tomorrow morning. Tomorrow the sun will rise at 6:15.
A meteor storm is an enhanced meteor shower in terms of numbers of meteors seen over a short interval. Some astronomers predict one where no meteor shower has been seen before, on the morning of May 24th this year. In the last couple of years two astronomers have projected the orbits of the debris from the comet now known as 209P/LINEAR, discovered in 2004. These astronomers are Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute and NASA and Esko Lyytinen of Finland. The International Meteor Organization calendar for this year reports predictions for the peak of meteor storm to be between 3 and 4 a.m. on May 24th. But no one really knows if the meteor storm will show at all. I’ll tell you of local observing plans on Thursday.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addendum
The expected radiant for the meteors of the May Camelopardalids, the meteors from the comet 209P/LINEAR at 3 a.m. on May 24, 2014. Credit: My LookingUp program.
Note that the meteors will appear all over the sky, but can be traced back to this radiant.
05/01/2014 – Ephemeris – Previewing May skies
Ephemeris for Thursday, May 1st. The sun rises at 6:32. It’ll be up for 14 hours and 14 minutes, setting at 8:47. The moon, 2 days past new, will set at 11:21 this evening.
Today we will start the month when the promise of spring is finally fulfilled, we hope. Daylight hours in the Interlochen/Traverse City area will increase from 14 hours and 14 minutes today to 15 hours 18 minutes on May 31st. The altitude, or angle, of the sun above the southern horizon at local noon will ascend from 60 degrees today to 67 degrees at month’s end. The altitude of the sun in the Straits area will be a degree lower than that but your length of daylight will be a few minutes longer. Local apparent noon this month, when the sun passes due south, will be about 1:38 p.m. The Eta Aquarid meteor shower will reach its peak about 2 a.m. this Sunday morning the 4th. I’ll have more on my blog bobmoler.wordpress.com today.
Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.
Addenda
The Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower
This shower is associated with Halley’s Comet. We see two meteor showers from Halley’s comet. One in October where the comet debris is crossing the earth’s orbit heading toward the sun, and again as its leaving. This shower is caused by the debris leaving the vicinity of the sun.
The Eta Aquarid radiant at the peak of the shower. The radiant moves slowly to the east with time. Credit: Bob Moler’s LookingUp program.
The peak of the shower will be at 7 h UT on May 6th. That’s 3 a.m. EDT, about 20 minutes before the radiant will rise. This will give about one hour before astronomical twilight starts to view the meteor shower in completely dark skies.
Possible Meteor Storm – May 24
There will be the possibility of a meteor storm on the morning of May 24th. A meteor storm differs from a meteor shower in the numbers of meteors seen and duration. There is a possibility of up to 400 meteors per hour for the hours of 7h to 8h UT (3 to 4 a.m. EDT).
The body responsible is Comet 209P/LINEAR. It was the 209th periodic comet discovered on February 3, 2004 by Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR). Despite the recent discovery 209P has been orbiting the sun for hundreds of years, maybe longer. This year the comet will come close to the Earth and will allow the Earth to pass through debris that it shed hundreds of years ago.
Comet 209P/LINEAR crosses the Earth’s orbit around May 28, 2014. The “stilts” on the comet’s orbit show that it is coming from north of the Earth’s orbital plane. Credit: Bob Moler’s LookingUp program.
The radiant for the Comet 209P/LINEAR debris. For this purpose I’ve designated it Camelopardids (not official and probably not correct). Credit: Bob Moler’s LookingUp program. Note that the constellation of Camelopardalis is a giraffe.
Astronomical Twilight starts at 3:51 a.m., but the skies should remain dark enough. The 24% illuminated moon will rise about 2:45 or so and may not be much of an impediment in seeing the meteor storm.
May Star Chart
Star Chart for mid-month for May 2014 at 11 p.m. Credit: Bob Moler’s LookingUp program.
Add a half hour to every week before the 15th and subtract and hour for every week after the 15th.
For a list of constellation names to go with the abbreviations click here.
Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog 