Ursids

Forums Meteors Ursids

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  • #574843
    Bill Ward
    Participant

    Hi,

    Still haven’t seen a whiff of the Jupiter and Saturn conjunction but to my surprise the skies cleared later last night.

    Managed to capture quite a few Ursids, I think the activity was up this year, no doubt, but no sign of the 400 ZHR outburst ~06UT.

    Nonetheless, I did catch 5 potential Ursid spectra and this one was exceptional! I’ve never caught an Ursid spectra before and in fact I’ve never seen an Ursid spectra published anywhere before.

    Alex and Dave of the NEMETODE group confirmed it was an Ursid so I am exceptionally pleased with this result.

    This is the raw image. I’ll get a calibrated spectrum once I’ve corrected for field curvature etc.

    It is a typically rocky nature with strong metal lines in the near UV/blue end.

    Cheers,

    Bill.

    #583606
    Alex Pratt
    Participant

    Hi Bill,

    I look forward to seeing your processed spectrum.

    David Anderson and I recorded 5 other multi-station Ursids across Scotland last night, so they might be matches for your other spectra. The predictions of enhanced Ursid rates came true in the early hours.

         Alex.

    #583610
    Bill Ward
    Participant

    Hi,

    Yes, definitely increased activity but I didn’t see the huge numbers forecast…

    I was surprised that the night was mostly clear, started off sparkling then got a bit foggy before clearing to higher broken cloud. Well pleased with this one.

    A nice rocky piece of comet dust, got most lines figured out but as usual a few of the weaker ones are the mysteries, could be any of several metals… I was surprised to see faint emission at 557.7nm, this is usually the preserve of faster meteors, could be related to the size of the meteoroid…?

    The others I got were at: 025040, 034541, 054702, 234653, 001036, 032239

    All of these were MUCH fainter than the 0640 one!

    It’s always seen as a lowly shower but it’s the one that started me on video analysis path.

    In my own attempt to replicate the Brandes and Benzenberg experiment of 1798…

    This was captured on video tape!

    Using UFO Capture.

    Two pairs of Ursids and where the two stations were. The height worked out by hand as 109km, +/- a lot!!! ; – )))

    2007, a full moon and me and Tom McEwan freezing at the Beith Golf Club Car park during a previous “outburst”,  Happy Days!

    Cheers,

    Bill.

    #583611
    Alex Pratt
    Participant

    Hi Bill,

    Great to see your spectrum of this Ursid. We measured its Vg to be 33.6 km/s (medium speed) and the IAU MDC lists the Ursids’ parent to be comet 8P/Tuttle – why does that remind me of Benny Hill?   🙂

    It’s a Jupiter-family comet with a period of 13 years. Well worth reading up about this interesting comet which can make relatively close approaches to Earth.

    I’ll check if we got multi-station captures at the times you’ve listed and I’ll reply offline.

    Cheers,

         Alex.

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