New meteor shower?

Meteors from Bootes early February?

There were hints on a meteor shower between Jan 25 and Feb 5 from visual observations. The following note was sent by Robert Lunsford to Sirko Molau and to me on Feb 3, 2000:

Could the both of you add a possible radiant in your video software
between the period January 25 to February 15? This possible radiant 
is currently near the bright star Arcturus. Just visualizing the 
radiant I would assign it a velocity of 50 km/sec. If either of you 
encounter any clear weather during this period I would be very 
interested in your results for this possible area of activity.

I analysed data obtained with my intensified video meteor camera running automatically during clear nights. The data are from the nights February 3/4, 5/6 and 6/7. The sky conditions were quite poor in the last night, and I was clouded out after midnight in the first session. Nevertheless, I got the display shown below from Rainer Arlt's "Radiant" software, indicating a distinct radiant near RA 229 deg, De + 14 deg. assuming a geocentric velocity of 50 km/s. The plot is based on 18 meteors only!

Another observation in the morning of Feb 9 (0430-0530 UT) yielded no further candidate for the radiant. (Zero of 7 meteors align with the radiant position, with the radiant high in the sky.)
I also observed visually on February 4, 2000, and found 2 candidates between 00:05 UT and 01:37 UT (1.50 hours Teff, LM=6.1, 10 meteors total).
All observations were done from Marquardt near Potsdam, Germany (12.9 deg E, 52.5 deg N)

Meanwhile I received some further reports:

George Gliba, via meteorobs, 7 Feb 2000:

It was cold and clear in Greenbelt, so I went out for a couple of 
hours to look for Xi Bootid meteors. In 1.95 hours Teff, 
from 7 to 9 UT, I saw at least 5 XBO meteors coming from a radiant 
near Xi Bootis, perhaps a bit south of Xi Bootis. All of the 
XBO meteors, and seven others were plotted. Below is a brief 
summary. I will be sending a complete report to Bob Lunsford 
and Mark Davis soon.

  Date    Time (UT) LM   Teff   XBO  FLE (VIR) SPO  Total
Feb. 5/6  7:00-8:00 5.2  0.97    3      1       6    10
Feb. 5/6  8:00-9:00 5.3  0.98    2      1       7    10

GWG

Kim S. Yeomans, 8 Feb 2000:

     Hello Mr Rendtel,
            I observed specifically for the possible Bootid radiant 
on the nights of 3/4, 4/5, and 5/6 and obtained a plotted radiant
consistently at 14hrs 9min +17.  Actually the exact area varied
somewhat from that by a degree or two,  Since I am quite new at
plotting, I was surprised I achieved such consistant results each
night.  I also had 18 candidate meteors over the three nights, with 
the most occuring on 5/6, but that was the only night I observed 
during the last hour before dawn when the radiant was highest 
(near zenith).
    I have sent copies of my plots to both Robert Lunsford (AMS/IMO) 
and Mark Davis of Namn.  I would be please to E-mail you copies of 
my reports, or mail you copies of the plots, but I am sure Bob will 
get them to you.  If I can be of any help, please let me know.  
From what I observed the radiant was every bit as "real" as the 
Virginid radiant, only more active during that time frame.
Kim S. Youmans (YOUKI)

Another observation done by Lucio Furlanetto of Italy indicates some possible shower meteors as well.

Roberto Haver reported on 9 Feb 2000:

Dear Juergen,
I enclose the my observations of 5-6/2/2000, 6-7/2/2000 and 6-7/2/1998.
I have observed together with Roberto Gorelli one possible radiant in 
the above-mentioned dates.
In 2000 the radiant (13 meteors plotted in total) is: RA 259, Decl +26.
In 1998 the radiant (11 meteors plotted in total) is: RA 266, Decl +29.
Name date LHE, Lambda Hercules.
The possible velocity of the meteors is equal a 50-60 km/s.
I have noticed that the comet C/1857D1 can do one radiant in RA 263, 
Decl +23 with velocity of the meteors equal to 51 km/s and the smallest 
distance to the Earth's orbit is 0.025 AU one 4.7/2/2000.
Have you observed something?
I have observed also few XBO meteors (maybe one photograped).

Kind regards,
Roberto Haver
r.haver@mclink.it

Here are results from recent research based on further data of Sirko Molau's AVIS video meteor camera and Jürgen Rendtel's CARMEN.

This image shows the radiant display as obtained from all 256 video meteors observed by the AVIS camera (Sirko Molau) and the CARMEN camera (Jürgen Rendtel) between January 25 and February 17, 2000. The assumed geocentric velocity is 50 km/s. The main radiant is at 233 deg, +30 deg; the standard deviation of the coordinates is 0.45 deg. The other significant radiant is at 236 deg, +13 deg close to delta Ser.

The next displays consider meteors observed between February 1 and 10. Using just backwards prolongations, we obtain the display shown above. Interestingly, we find two postions which suggest a radiant. The northern one at 221 +17 is very close to the originally suspected Xi Bootid position. However, this is not a real radiant, since the angular velocities are not considered. This may be a hint on the artificial nature of the reported radiant.

Using the same 34 meteor trails, but now considering the angular velocity data, we obtain the display shown here. Here we find the 2 radiants already derived from the entire sample. Since the radiant appears stronger in this sub-set, we may conclude that a related activity is higher in the period February 1 - 10.

This display, calculated from video meteors between Feb 5 and 17, shows that the radiant in Serpens is weaker now. The more northern radiant in Corona Borealis, which is also prominent in the other displays, remains relatively strong. Anyway, the period of the winter nights deserves more attention and good positional data can help to clarify the situation.

Jürgen Rendtel
Seestraße 6
14476 Marquardt
Germany
Phone: +49 (0)33208 50753
Email: jrendtel@aip.de

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