Hospitals & Asylums

   

 

5th Plenary Perseid Party HA-21-6-07

 

Sanders; Tony J. for Sharon M.

 

1. To promote greater respect for the night sky we on planet Earth share in common, we, Tony and Sharon Sanders first put our birthday up for a vote in 2003, on 11 August 2004, we won the popular election with 139 meteors an hour.  With no moon, 2007 should be a good year for observing the Perseids, The 120 meteors an hour of the Quadrantids 1 Jan. – 5 Jan however pose a challenge with the Perseids 23 Jul. – 20 Aug whose maximum will be on the early morning of the 13th, it is up the Observers and the IMO, to decide.

 

2. This is the first draft to be done as a treaty.  It is dated, the spring equinox 2007 although it was done on the 19th.  In 2007 the reclassification of Pluto to one of 50 known objects in the solar system that can be classified as dwarf planets is taking effect.  Discovered in 2005 was that Eris, named for an ancient Greek goddess of strife and discord, is 27 percent more massive than Pluto. Eris is about half the size of Earth's moon. The International Astronomical Union membership in attendance at a meeting in Prague, Czech Republic, in August 2006 voted upon and approved a definition of the term ‘planet’ that excludes Pluto from a position it has held since its discovery 76 years ago, in 1930. So as not to confuse the buyers of the 10 Chapter Manuscript in August this Treaty is no longer Chapter 11 of the United States Code but a treaty to better observe our birthday on the day that has been set aside in Art. 11 of the Constitution of Non Governmental Economics (CHANGE) that now states,

 

The 11th of August is such a good day for a Party that both the author, Anthony J., in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and his sister, Sharon M. Sanders, in the State of California, were born on that day in 1974 and 1976 respectively.  August 11 is at the height of the Perseid Meteor Shower when warm summer nights make for a nice 24 hour celebration.  Everyone is hoped to read HA Statute all day and/or watch the shooting stars all night on 11 August, Hospitals & Asylums Day.  Friends are reminded to make a wish on the Perseid meteor shower in the Summer Solstice Issue title24uscode@aol.com   

 

3. If the Perseids are the most generous meteor shower of the year we win, the kingdom, if the most popular night for meteors is our birthday. We hope to pay $1 per meteor formally reported to the International Meteor Organization and/or American Meteor Society, but cannot afford to without your vote.  Since we first began counting in 2003, the showers were obscured twice by the moon in 2003 and 2006.  2004 was a decisive victory and 2005 was also a victory, because the moon obscured the Leonids. 

 

4. In 2004 star fall was reported to have peaked at 139 meteors on 2004 August 11 after review of 16,536 Perseids observed in 1567 individual observing periods they were far and away the most observed of all meteor showers of 2004.  IMO reported for the whole year, a short-lived peak of activity that was observed at 20h56m UT +-4 min on August 11, 2004.  It was a decisive win. 

 

5. In 2005 the Earth was predicted to pass closest to the core of P109 Swift-Tuttle orbit near 1800 Universal Time on August 12 the meteors fell at their usual rate of 80 per hour and the Perseids were again winner against the winter moons.  In 2006 meteor activity picked up and the Perseids were obscured by the moon. 

 

6. There was a full moon on 9 August 2006 and it was impossible to compete with the 100+ meteors per hour of the Leonids 14 Nov.- 21 Nov., 120 of the Geminids 7 Dec. – 17 Dec. and the 120 of the Quadrantids 1 Jan. – 5 Jan.  The 120 meteors an hour of the Quadrantids 1 Jan. – 5 Jan pose a competitor the Perseids 23 Jul. – 20 Aug whose maximum will on the early morning of the 13th.

 

7. Robert Lunsford, Operations Manager of the American Meteor Society announced in Issue No. 34 of Meteor Trails, Journal of the American Meteor Society of June 2007, the Perseid meteor shower is often the highlight of the meteor observers’ year.  Being able to view strong activity during the warm summer nights is a combination that is hard to beat.  For those of us who have spent many a cold winter’s morning under the stars, this is a welcome change and an opportunity not to be missed.  For those of us who rarely observe meteors the Perseids present a great opportunity to see some shooting stars. In 2007, the viewing conditions for the Perseids are nearly ideal. 

 

8. Experienced observers will need to note the peak for this year’s display is one day later than normal.. The normal maximum occurs on August 12 but due the year being 365.25 days long we have gained 18 hours since the last leap year.  This will push the Perseids and most of the other showers a day later in 2007 and early 2008.  With 2008 being a leap year the showers will revert back to their normal dates starting with the 2008 Lyrids in April.  Solar longitudes refer to equinox J2000 and have three significant decimals. Solar longitudes are given in 2-hour steps for each day of the years.  Solar longitude numbers zero on the spring equinox of every year.  In 2007 the equinox is predicted to be around 3 am on 21 July.

 

9. Each time the parent comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle returns to the inner solar system another stream is created and there is an increase in the number of meteors.  During the mid-90s, after the passage of the comet in Nov. and Dec. of 1992 reported rates were as high as 400 per hour.  Considerable very old material now obits the sun in paths relatively close to the trail left by the comet.  At times we usually skim the outer regions where the meteoroid density is not as great.  The density in these areas is still great enough to produce and average of sixty Perseids per hour during a normal display.

 

10. The best strategy for viewing the Perseid shower would be to observe as late as possible during the early morning hours of August 13. Perseid meteors will appear in every portion of the sky but most of the activity will appear in the northeast quadrant, some thirty degrees away from the radiant.  Sporadics meteors will have random paths while Perseid meteors trace back to the radiant.  It is encouraged to view this year’s display, as the 2008 return is not nearly as favorable.  If your sky is cloudy on the night of maximum activity (August 12/13) decent rates will still be seen two nights before and after maximum.  Hoping the people will go the darkest polls with the clearest skies they can find in record numbers so we can win the election on the basis of the popular vote of meteor observers reporting to the IMO.

11. From June 7 to 10 the 26th International Meteor Conference took place in Bareges, France.  Thanks to the effort of Francois Colas, Jeremie Vaubaillon and others of the local organizing team (and the many people behind the scenery in L'Hospitalet) on the one hand and the efforts of 84 participants to attend the IMC 2007 it became a very good conference. The unusual date in June (instead of September) was due to the "Meteoroids 2007" in Barcelona right after the IMC. In total, I counted 19 IMC participants who also attended the Meteoroids, indicating that the conjunction of the two meetings led to useful interactions between the participants of both conferences.  One of the next steps is the preparation of the IMC 2008. During the September IMCs, we usually present the date and location of the following IMC. This year we are three months  ahead of this schedule. Therefore we would encourage people or groups who think about preparing and hosting a future IMC to send their proposals to the IMO Council. Of course, this concerns not only the IMC 2008, but perhaps also conferences further in the future. An early proposal allows to start preparations well ahead. It also allows the Council to chose a location and date considering the distribution and usual time schedules of most IMO members and participants.  So please let us know your thoughts and proposals by July 20 so that we can inform both the organizers and the participants  about the IMC 2008 in due time.

Kind regards

Juergen Rendtel
IMO President

Sanders, Tony J.  $1 Meteors. Hospitals & Asylums. HA-19-6-07. 42 pp. www.title24uscode.org/PMeteors.doc

 

1. The law of universal gravitation is the supreme law of comets and meteors whereby any two bodies in the universe are attracted to each other with a force that is proportional to the product of the masses of the two bodies and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.   

 

F = G \frac{m_1 m_2}{r^2}

F is the magnitude of the gravitational force between the two point masses

G is the gravitational constant

m1 is the mass of the first point mass

m2 is the mass of the second point mass

r is the distance between the two point masses

 

Assuming SI units, F is measured in newtons (N), m1 and m2 in kilograms (kg), r in metres (m), and the constant G is approximately equal to,

 

G = \left(6.67428 \plusmn 0.0010 \right) \times 10^{-11} \ \mbox{m}^3 \ \mbox{kg}^{-1} \ \mbox{s}^{-2} \,

= \left(6.67428 \plusmn 0.0010 \right) \times 10^{-11} \ \mbox{N} \ \mbox{m}^2 \ \mbox{kg}^{-2} \,

= \left(6.67428 \plusmn 0.0010 \right) \times 10^{-8} \ \mbox{cm}^3 \ \mbox{g}^{-1} \ \mbox{s}^{-2} \,

 

2. Newton’s three laws of motion

 

First, A body at rest or in a state of uniform motion tends to stay at rest of in uniform motion unless an outside force acts upon it.  Also known as the law of inertia.

 

Second, the acceleration of an object is equal to the force applied to it divided by its mass.  In mathematical terms Newton’s second law can be written as the differential equation to find for d - acceleration,

 

\vec F = {\mathrm{d}(m \vec v) \over \mathrm{d}t}

where:

 

F\! is force

m\! is mass

v\! is velocity

t\! is time

          

Third, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

 

3. The laws of thermodynamics are important to comets and meteors,

 

Zeroth, If two thermodynamic systems are in thermal equilibrium with a third, they are also in thermal equilibrium with each other.

 

A \sim B \wedge B \sim C \Rightarrow A \sim C

 

First (Conservation) states that energy is always conserved, it cannot be created or destroyed.

 

\mathrm{d}U=\delta Q-\delta W\,

 

Second (Entropy) in all energy exchanges, if no energy enters or leaves the system, the potential energy of the state will always be less than that of the initial state.

 

\int \frac{\delta Q}{T} \ge 0

 

Third (Absolute Zero) if all the thermal motion of molecules (kinetic energy) could be removed, a state called absolute zero would occur. Absolute zero results in a temperature of 0 Kelvins or -273.15° Celsius

 

T \rightarrow 0, S \rightarrow C

Aside from the established four basic laws of thermodynamics described above, there is also the combined law of thermodynamics. The combined law of thermodynamics is essentially the 1st and 2nd law subsumed into a single concise mathematical statement as shown below:

 dE - TdS + pdV \le 0

Here, E is energy, T is temperature, S is entropy, p is pressure, and V is volume.

Meteor Observation

α, δ: Coordinates for a shower's radiant position, usually at maximum. α is right ascension, δ is declination. Radiants drift across the sky each day due to the Earth's own orbital motion around the Sun.

r: The population index, a term computed from each shower's meteor magnitude distribution. r = 2.0 —2.5 is brighter than average, while r above 3.0 is fainter than average.  Magnitude is the how much brighter the meteor is than the brightest star in the sky.

λ: Solar longitude, a precise measure of the Earth's position on its orbit which is not dependent on the vagaries of the calendar. All λ are given for the equinox 2000.0 of the Julian calendar.

v∞: Atmospheric or apparent meteoric velocity, given in km/s. Velocities range from about 11 km/s (very slow) to 72 km/s (very fast). 40 km/s is roughly medium speed.

ZHR: Zenithal Hourly Rate, a calculated maximum number of meteors an ideal observer would see in perfectly clear skies with the shower radiant overhead. This figure is given in terms of meteors per hour. Where meteor activity persisted at a high level for less than an hour, or where observing circumstances were very poor, an estimated ZHR (EZHR) is used, which is less accurate than the normal ZHR.

 

Shower

Activity

Max Date

λ

α

δ

v∞

r

ZHR

Antihelion Source (ANT)

Jan 01 - Dec 31

 

 

 

 

30

3.0

3

Quadrantids (QUA)

Jan 01 - Jan 05

Jan 04

283°16

230°

+49°

41

2.1

120

α-Centaurids (ACE)

Jan 28 - Feb 21

Feb 08

319°2

211°

-59°

56

2.0

5

δ-Leonids (DLE)

Feb 15 - Mar 10

Feb 25

336°

168°

+16°

23

3.0

2

γ-Normids (GNO)

Feb 25 - Mar 22

Mar 14

353°

239°

-50°

56

2.4

4

Lyrids (LYR)

Apr 16 - Apr 25

Apr 22

32°32

271°

+34°

49

2.1

18

π-Puppids (PPU)

Apr 15 - Apr 28

Apr 24

33°5

110°

-45°

18

2.0

var

η-Aquarids (ETA)

Apr 19 - May 28

May 06

45°5

338°

-01°

66

2.4

60

η-Lyrids (ELY)

May 03 - May 12

May 09

48°4

287°

+44

44

3.0

3

June Bootids (JBO)

Jun 22 - Jul 02

Jun 27

95°7

224°

+48°

18

2.2

var

Piscis Austrinids (PAU)

Jul 15 - Aug 10

Jul 28

125°

341°

-30°

35

3.2

5

South.δ-Aquarids (SDA)

Jul 12 - Aug 19

Jul 28

125°

339°

-16°

41

3.2

20

α-Capricornids (CAP)

Jul 03 - Aug 15

Jul 30

127°

307°

-10°

23

2.5

4

Perseids (PER)

Jul 17 - Aug 24

Aug 13

140°0

46°

+58°

59

2.6

100

κ-Cygnids (KCG)

Aug 03 - Aug 25

Aug 18

145°

286°

+59°

25

3.0

3

α-Aurigids (AUR)

Aug 25 - Sep 08

Sep 01

158°6

84°

+42°

66

2.6

7

September Perseids (SPE)

Sep 05 - Sep 17

Sep 09

166°7

60°

+47°

64

2.9

5

δ-Aurigids (DAU)

Sep 18 - Oct 10

Oct 04

191°

88°

+49°

64

2.9

2

Draconids (GIA)

Oct 06 - Oct 10

Oct 09

195°4

262°

+54°

20

2.6

var

ε-Geminids (EGE)

Oct 14 - Oct 27

Oct 18

205°

102°

+27°

70

3.0

2

Orionids (ORI)

Oct 02 - Nov 07

Oct 21

208°

95°

+16°

66

2.5

23

Leo Minorids (LMI)

Oct 19 - Oct 27

Oct 24

211°

162°

+37°

62

3.0

2

Southern Taurids (STA)

Oct 01 - Nov 25

Nov 05

223°

52°

+15°

27

2.3

5

Northern Taurids (NTA)

Oct 01 - Nov 25

Nov 12

230°

58°

+22°

29

2.3

5

Leonids (LEO)

Nov 10 - Nov 23

Nov 18

235°27

153°

+22°

71

2.5

15+

α-Monocerotids (AMO)

Nov 15 - Nov 25

Nov 22

239°32

117°

+01°

65

2.4

var

Dec Phoenicids (PHO)

Nov 28 - Dec 09

Dec 06

254°25

18°

-53°

18

2.8

var

Puppid/Velids (PUP)

Dec 01 - Dec 15

(Dec 07)

(255°)

123°

-45°

40

2.9

10

Monocerotids (MON)

Nov 27 - Dec 17

Dec 09

257°

100°

+08°

42

3.0

2

σ-Hydrids (HYD)

Dec 03 - Dec 15

Dec 12

260°

127°

+02°

58

3.0

3

Geminids (GEM)

Dec 07 - Dec 17

Dec 14

262°2

112°

+33°

35

2.6

120

Coma Berenicids (COM)

Dec 12 - Jan 23

Dec 20

268°

177°

+25°

65

3.0

5

Ursids (URS)

Dec 17 - Dec 26

Dec 23

270°7

217°

+76°

33

3.0

10

Source: International Meteor Organization Meteor Shower Calendar 2007