------------------------------------------------------------------- THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 1579 2000 Nov 17 12.14UT Ed:Guy M Hurst, 16,Westminster Close, Kempshott Rise, Basingstoke, Hants, RG22 4PP,England.Telephone/FAX(01256)471074Int:+441256471074 INTERNET: GUY@TAHQ.DEMON.CO.UK GMH at AST.STAR.RL.AC.UK WORLD WIDE WEB http://www.demon.co.uk/astronomer ------------------------------------------------------------------- DO DRACONIS (=Q2000/298) Chris Jones, Laindon, England, reports his detection of the outburst of DO Draconis, a star on the Recurrent Objects Programme. On 2000 Nov 16.766UT, he estimated it at 11.1v whereas on Nov 13.785 it was not seen and fainter than 14.3. (0.45-m refl.) In response to his message, Gary Poyner emailed to confirm the outburst recording the star at 10.6v on Nov 16.790UT with a 0.22-m reflector (Henden/Honeycutt sequence). In a later message, we note Patrick Schmeer, Germany, advised that he had seen it at 11.1 on Nov 16.729 and commented that the previous outburst of this intermediate polar occurred on 1999 Sept 20-24 and that this is therefore the shortest interval ever observed - only 423 days. A second message from Patrick indicated DO Dra was fainter than 13.3 on Nov 15.90UT. Eddy Muyllaert, Belgium, later reported the star at 10.9v on Nov 16.837UT using the AAVSO sequence. LEONIDS 2000 The International Meteor Organisation report (extract only): On the night of November 17-18, 2000, the Earth will cross the dust trail ejected by parent comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle 8 orbital revolutions (267 years) ago as well as the dust trail ejected four revolutions (134 years) ago. The first encounter is predicted for Nov 18 at 3:44UT and will favour western Europe and Africa (including central Europe), as well as NE South America. The second encounter is predicted a few hours later, at 7:51UT and will favour most of North America. Predicting the maximum ZHR for both peaks is very difficult, because of the scarcity of results on previous encounters of the Earth with these dust trails. The most reasonable estimate is 100 for both peaks, but real ZHRs can be both lower and higher. A storm comparable to last year is unlikely, but not ruled out. A particular circumstance this year is the disturbing Last Quarter Moon near Regulus, as close to the radiant as is possible! Therefore, it is good to remind observers that a meteor shower can in principle be observed in any direction in the sky - there is no need whatsoever to look in the direction of the radiant! In this particular instance, we recommend to look at least 90 deg AWAY from the radiant, to have the Moon OUTSIDE the field of view! Of course, this makes shower classification more difficult. If a suspected Leonid appears, do NOT look back in the direction of the radiant to confirm it, as you will unavoidable be blinded by the Moon, and the dark adaption of your eyes will be ruined constantly, resulting in significantly fewer meteor seen! Luckily, it is not necessary to look back at the radiant to classify the meteor. We have calculated for you a few lines at the sky along which Leonid meteors may travel: kappa Draconis -> beta Ursae Minoris -> chi and delta Draconis -> Deneb Polaris -> epsilon Cephei -> 1 Lacertae beta Cassiopeiae -> beta Pegasi alpha Persei -> gamma Andromedae theta Aurigae -> zeta Persei -> gamma Arietis The method you should use, is the counting method. As long as rates do not significantly exceed the expectations, proceed as usual. Guy M Hurst