RASNZ Comet and Meteor Section

THE POSSIBLE AUGUST 'PAVONID' METEOR SHOWER

(perhaps 'fueled' by Comet Levy - P/1991 L3)

Recently Dr David H. Levy contacted me and asked if I could monitor a possible meteor radiant in Pavo which may be linked with a 50 year periodic comet he discovered in June 1991. David Hall suggested that Comet Levy (P/1991 L3) may have peppered a path that the Earth would annually pass through in late August and thus produce a meteor shower. Levy is naturally interested to see if this theory is correct, however the radiant is below his southern horizon and so he needs southern hemisphere observers to monitor it. Basically the meteors produced (if any) may be slow moving with the radiant point being about 3 degrees north of Gamma Pavo. Details:

Observers are asked to observe the area around August 29th until September 3rd - particularly Thursday 31st August and Friday 1st September 2006. No telescope is needed, just lay down at a darkish site and look about 20 degrees from the radiant point. With a tape recorder note the following - time, magnitude (brightness), colour, duration (in seconds - or part thereof), distance (in degrees), and whether it was a shower or sporadic (not coming away from the radiant point). If possible also draw the meteor's path on a star chart for later analysis...

An observing report (from AMS) is availiable here. A plotting chart is availiable here (a JPeg that needs printing)

If you do any observations could you please email them to me at the email link below...

Cheers - John Drummond (RASNZ Comet and Meteor section director)

Details re Comet Levy (P/1991 L3)

The following was written by J.D. Shanklin...
P/Levy (1991 L3, 1991 X1)
Visually discovered by David Levy of Tucson, Arizona with his 0.41-m
reflector at magnitude 8 on June 14.45, as the comet brightened on its
way to perihelion. [IAUC 5291, June 14]. Tucson's location of 32©ªN
helped in the discovery as further north in the UK, the comet did not
become observable until almost a month later. The comet has a period
of just over 50 years and if perihelion is in September a close
approach to the earth is possible; there may be an identity with the
comet of 1499.
The comet was a morning object and this discouraged many observers
from attempting to view it (Fig 9). On discovery the comet was in the
borders of Aries and Pisces. Jones estimated it at 9.0 with the 0.32-
m reflector on July 3 and it remained at a similar magnitude all month
and became quite well condensed. A short tail was reported in mid
month by Roberto Haver, 0.5©ª long in pa 260 - 270, consistent with the
direction of the radius vector. The comet moved north west with
little change in solar elongation, reaching Auriga in early August.
Graham Keitch estimated it at 8.8 on August 4 with 20x100B. It faded
and became less condensed with Shanklin estimating it at 11.0 with the
Northumberland refractor on September 8 when it was on the borders of
Lynx and Gemini. The coma diameter decreased from around 4' in early
July to around 1.5' in September.
Table 7. Ephemeris for comet P/Levy 1991q
Magnitudes calculated from m = 7.6 + 5.0 * Log(.) + 8.1 * Log(r)
Latitude: 53.0©ªN Longitude: 0.0©ªW
Day R.A. Dec Mag . R Observable Elong
hh mm.m ©ª.mm A.U. A.U. hh.mm to hh.mm ©ª
(1950.0)
1991 May
3/ 4 23 1.1 -15.01 9.9 1.59 1.43 Not Observable 62
13/14 23 36.2 -9.17 9.4 1.47 1.33 Not Observable 61
23/24 0 13.5 -2.37 9.0 1.37 1.23 Not Observable 60
1991 June
2/ 3 0 53.4 4.44 8.6 1.31 1.14 Not Observable 57
12/13 1 36.2 12.23 8.4 1.27 1.07 Not Observable 54
22/23 2 22.0 19.42 8.2 1.28 1.01 Not Observable 51
1991 July
2/ 3 3 10.4 26.04 8.1 1.31 0.99 Not Observable 48
12/13 4 0.7 31.01 8.2 1.36 0.99 0.51 to 1.27 46
22/23 4 50.8 34.22 8.4 1.44 1.01 0.41 to 1.56 45
31/32 5 34.1 36.06 8.7 1.51 1.06 0.41 to 2.22 45
1991 August
1/ 2 5 38.8 36.13 8.7 1.52 1.07 0.42 to 2.25 45
11/12 6 22.8 36.51 9.1 1.60 1.14 0.50 to 2.52 45
21/22 7 1.8 36.38 9.4 1.67 1.23 1.02 to 3.16 47
31/32 7 35.8 35.52 9.8 1.74 1.32 1.13 to 3.39 49
1991 September
10/11 8 4.8 34.47 10.1 1.80 1.43 1.20 to 4.00 53
20/21 8 29.4 33.37 10.4 1.84 1.54 1.23 to 4.20 57
30/31 8 50.0 32.26 10.7 1.88 1.65 1.21 to 4.38 62