Meteor Activity June 15th/16th

Hi all,

There was a report on bbc website about short lived but highly active meteor activity on Mon evening

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8102331.stm

It was the peak of the June Lyrids that evening. Also a friend of mine was in France on hols and witnessed six or seven bright meteors leaving trails around the same time on Mon night between 9-10pm BST. Cloudy and misty up North, anyone see anything?

Neill

I didn't see anything myself Neill, I haven't done any night-time observing in about 5 weeks as it is.

However, you just reminded me of a night on Sunday night May 10th, I was out on my own in the back yard. A 'radiant' between Lyra and Hercules produced 5 meteors, all radiating in the same direction (heading south-southwest) in a spell of about 7 to 8 minutes. They were no brighter than a magnitude guesstimate of +2.5 to +3, left no persistent trails, appeared white in colour, very fast moving. Observing time was from 23:44hrs for about 25 minutes.

Thought it might be worth a mention here, if anyone else saw something similar.

Seanie.

Nope, I was out after that.

Received this via email - BAA seem puzzled by them:

Coastguard stations received hundreds of reports of 'lights in the sky' overthe English Channel from about 9.30 pm on the evening of Monday, June15/16. Fears that the white and green flashes were distress flares fired off by aship in trouble proved unfounded, but the display prompted calls to coastguard stations from Hampshire down to Brixham in Devon and across toJersey and France on Monday evening.

Sunset along the South Coast was at around 9.20 pm BST (20:20 UT) lastMonday evening, so if the time being quoted by the newspapers for this display really was 9.30 pm BST, then the sky would have been extremely bright at this time with no stars or planets visible. A Solent Coastguard spokesman was quoted as saying: "There were reports offlares all down the coast which went on for about half an hour, but therewas a forecast for a meteor shower."

Apparently the reports came in right along the coast virtually simultaneously, sweeping along the coastline with one station getting reports after the other. Also, British yachtswoman Dee Caffari and her all-woman crew, who set sailoff the Isle of Wight to try to break the round-Britain and Ireland record,saw the display of 'lights in the sky' and described it as 'amazing'.

Many of the 'official' reports are putting this display down to an unexpected meteor shower. Such an interpretation is rather surprising because the three meteor showers being cited do not really fit such anexplanation. The June Lyrids are active at this time of year, but normally produce only very low observed rates. The June Bootids produced short-lived bursts in activity in 1998 and 2004, but the shower is normally only active from June 22 until July 2 with a peak on June 27. The Arietids are a daylight stream, with the radiant rising in the east just 45 minutes before sunrise, so members of this shower are few and far between and they tend to be "Earthgrazers" - meteors that skim horizontally through the upperatmosphere from radiants near the horizon. One would not expect to see any Arietids at 9.30 pm in the evening.

What are urgently needed are detailed observers' reports of this phenomenon.If you saw these 'lights' please send details of your location, the date and time (as accurately as you can provide it, and please say whether you are using BST or UT), with a detailed description of what you saw, giving altitude and azimuth information if you can. If you know of people who saw this display, then please interview them as soon as possible and submit a report on their behalf. Please provide a contact number/email address so that we can contact you if we need to. Please send reports to the undersigned via the 'Contact Us' page on theBAA's website britastro.org/baa/

Dr John Mason
Acting Director
BAA Meteor Section

Neill

Neill wrote:

Many of the 'official' reports are putting this display down to an unexpected meteor shower. Such an interpretation is rather surprising because the three meteor showers being cited do not really fit such anexplanation. The June Lyrids are active at this time of year, but normally produce only very low observed rates...

I wouldn't think it strange, I have seen sporadic rises in activity before, any seasoned astronomer will tell you they have seen the same, either around a known peak in activity, or no where near a known peak.. A 'bubble' of cometary debris simply gets swept up.

Seanie.