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THE ASTRONOMER Electronic Circular No 3002      2014 May 17 08.52UT
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      Backup: gmh@wdcc1.bnsc.rl.ac.uk
WORLD WIDE WEB                         http://www.theastronomer.org
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POSSIBLE NEW METEOR SHOWER FROM COMET 209P/LINEAR
Editor: For those who attended the recent 50th anniversary meeting of 'The
Astronomer' in Basingstoke you will be aware that a presentation of slides
by Robert McNaught was kindly given on his behalf by Tony Markham (see TA
WWW 'latest news' and link to Powerpoint file). This related to a
possibility of a new meteor shower linked to Comet 209/LINEAR which might
appear for observers in the USA on May 24. Subsequently the Central Bureau
have issued the following notice:

P. Jenniskens, SETI Institute et. al. report that a new meteor shower may be
visible for observers in the United States and southern parts of Canada
between 2014 May 24d 06h03m and 8h09mUT, with peak activity most likely
between 6h33m and 7h49m UT.  The new shower is anticipated because the orbit
of the Jupiter-family comet 209P/LINEAR (period 5.03 years) has gradually
moved closer to the earth's orbit, and the earth will have an exceptionally
close encounter with the comet itself in late May  at a minimum distance of
0.0554AU.  Moreover, the earth will pass the comet's orbit near perihelion,
where most past dust ejecta are concentrated in a relatively small region of
space.  Whether or not a meteor shower will be visible depends on the
unknown past activity of this now-weakly-active comet, long before it was
first detected in 2004.  If the shower manifests itself, then meteors will
radiate from R.A. = 125 deg, Decl. = +78 deg (equinox 2000.0), in the
constellation Camelopardalis and will have a slow apparent entry speed of
19.4 km/s.  A summary of more-recent prediction modelling and a tool to
calculate the best local times for viewing this event can be seen at URL
http://meteor.seti.org.

Editor: We would welcome reports from our subscribers in USA and Canada.

SUPERNOVA 2014Y (TNTS)
2014Y   Mar  2.59   07 23 33.39  +54 26 30.2  18.3   1.7"W    3.2"N
J.-J. Zhang: spectrum Mar 7 type-IIn a few weeks after maximum and closely
matching SN 1996L at + 58 days.

SUPERNOVA 2014Z IN ESO 114-G4 (PARKER)
2014Z   Mar  6.39   01 44 07.99  -61 07 07.4  15.2r  6  "E   16  "N
An image of the new variable can be viewed via website URL
http://tinyurl.com/lrn4773
Y. Cao: near-infrared spectrum Mar 8 type-Ia near maximum.

SUPERNOVA 2014ab (CATALINA REAL-TIME SURVEY)
2014ab  Mar  9.43   13 48 05.99  + 7 23 16.4  16.4   1.5"N
E. Y. Hsiao: near-infrared spectrum Mar 10 type-IIn a month past maximum
Guy M Hurst reports V photometry with the Bradford Robotic telescope on 2014
April 4 at magnitude 16.8.

SUPERNOVA 2014ac IN NGC 5837 (LEONINI ET. AL.)
2014ac  Mar  9.99   15 04 40.09  +12 37 54.0  16.6   8  "W   10  "S
L. Tomasella: noisy spectrum Mar 10 type-Ia a few days after maximum


Guy M Hurst