2018 October Camelopardalids Peak Friday, Oct. 5, to Pre-Dawn Oct. 6

Summary: The 2018 October Camelopardalids peak Friday night, Oct. 5, to pre-dawn Saturday, Oct. 6, as a little-known, minor annual meteor shower.

October Camelopardalids might repeat 2005, 2006 and 2016 outbursts with enhanced activity in 2018: The SETI Institute @SETIInstitute, via Twitter Oct. 13, 2016

The 2018 October Camelopardalids peak Friday night, Oct. 5, to pre-dawn Saturday, Oct. 6, as a little-known minor meteor shower that is short-lived, with activity centered on the shower’s peak date.

The International Meteor Organization’s 2018 Meteor Shower Calendar places the 2018 maximum activity time for the October Camelopardalids in the pre-dawn hours, Saturday, Oct. 6, at 03:30 Universal Time (4:30 a.m. British Summer Time, Saturday, Oct. 6; 11:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, Friday, Oct. 5). United Kingdom-based Society for Popular Astronomy (SPA) suggests peak-viewing hours Saturday, Oct. 6, between 00:00 and 04:00 UT (1 a.m. to 5 a.m. BST, Saturday, Oct. 6; 8 p.m. EDT, Friday, Oct. 5, to 12 p.m. EDT, Saturday, Oct. 6).

Lunar conditions are conducive for easy viewing of the 2018 October Camelopardalids. The waning crescent phase is winding down in anticipation of the Tuesday, Oct. 9, new moon. Illumination claims 18 percent surface visibility for Friday, Oct. 5. Surface visibility of the slivery lunar crescent dips to only 10 percent for Saturday, Oct. 6.

The October Camelopardalid meteor shower’s name reflects an apparent point of origin, known as the radiant, in Camelopardalis the Giraffe constellation. Robert Lunsford, the American Meteor Society’s Meteor Activity Outlook weekly columnist, describes the radiant’s placement “in a very remote portion of eastern Camelopardalis.”

The International Meteor Organization’s meteor shower calendars for 2010 to 2015 specify “a north-circumpolar radiant near the ‘tail’ of Draco. . .” The radiant lies near the Giraffe’s border with Draco the Dragon. The location has “. . . no bright star nearby that readily identifies the radiant position,” according to Dutch and American meteor astronomer Peter Jenniskens and four co-authors (Jarmo Moilanen; Esko Lyytinen; Ilkka Yrjölä; Jeff Brower) in WGN’s October 2005 issue. The co-authors explain their choice for the shower’s name: “In order to avoid confusion with the October Draconids, we will choose here to name this shower the October Camelopardalids.”

Camelopardalis stretches across the Northern Celestial Hemisphere between two starry landmarks. Capella (Alpha Aurigae, α Aurigae; Alpha Aur, α Aur), brightest star in Auriga the Charioteer constellation and the Northern Celestial Hemisphere’s third brightest star, lies to the Giraffe’s south. Polaris (Alpha Ursae Minoris, α Ursae Minoris; Alpha UMi, α UMi), brightest star in Ursa Minor the Little Bear constellation and currently the northern pole star, lies to the Giraffe’s north.

Lunsford and the Society for Popular Astronomy (SPA) suggest locating the October Camelopardalid meteor shower’s radiant by way of the Northern Hemisphere’s bear constellations. The SPA notes the radiant location “roughly midway” between Ursa Major the Great Bear’s pointer stars, Merak and Dubhe, and the Little Bear’s tail star, Polaris.

Lunsford explains the radiant’s location by way of the dipper asterisms, or pattern of stars, in the two bear constellations. Pherkad (Gamma Ursae Minoris, γ Ursae Minoris; Gamma UMi, γ UMi) and Kochab (Beta Ursae Minoris, β Ursae Minoris; Beta UMi, β UMi) mark the outer side of the bowl in Ursa Minor’s Little Dipper asterism. Pointer stars Merak (Beta Ursae Majoris, β Ursae Majoris; Beta UMa, β UMa) and Dubhe (Alpha Ursae Majoris, α Ursae Majoris; Alpha UMa, α Uma) shape the outer side of the bowl in the Great Bear constellation’s Big Dipper asterism. Lines imaginatively extended westward through the Little Dipper bowl’s outer side and northward through the Big Dipper bowl’s outer side intersect close to the October Camelopardalid meteor shower’s radiant.

The October Camelopardalids appear to radiate at a medium velocity outward from Camelopardalis. Meteor entry velocity is calculated at 47 kilometers per second (about 29 miles per second).

Zenithal hourly rate (ZHR) hypothesizes ideal viewing rates under optimal radiant and sky conditions. The International Meteor Organization’s 2018 Meteor Shower Calendar places a question mark after a suggested zenithal hourly rate of five meteors per hour for the peak date.

The calendar’s compiler, Dr. Jürgen Rendtel of northeastern Germany’s Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), considers a possible outburst in 2018. He notes short-lived outbursts in 2005, 2006 and 2016. Enhanced activity occurred at 14:45 UT, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016 (3:45 a.m. BST; 10:45 a.m. EDT), at the predicted position. He suggests possibly similar enhanced activity at 02:16 UT, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018 (3:16 BST, Saturday, Oct. 6; 10:16 p.m. EDT, Friday, Oct. 5).

The October Camelopardalid meteor shower’s parent body is unknown. Jiří Borovička and Pavel Spurný of Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences, Ondřejov, central Czech Republic, have determined that the unknown parent body is a long period comet with an orbital period larger than 260 years and a nominal value of 4,500 years.

The takeaway for the 2018 October Camelopardalids’ peak Friday night, Oct. 5, to pre-dawn Saturday, Oct. 6, is that data from previous outbursts in 2005, 2006 and 2016 suggest the possibility of enhanced activity in 2018.

NASA Allsky Meteor Camera captures October Camelopardalid meteor, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2010, at 03:49 Coordinated Universal Time (4:49 a.m. British Summer Time, Saturday, Oct. 6; 11:49 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, Friday, Oct. 5); Bill Cooke, "Camel Leopards and Comets," Watch the Skies, Oct. 8, 2010: Watch the Skies, via NASA Blogs

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

October Camelopardalids might repeat 2005, 2006 and 2016 outbursts with enhanced activity in 2018: The SETI Institute @SETIInstitute, via Twitter Oct. 13, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/SETIInstitute/status/786664561336254464

NASA Allsky Meteor Camera captures October Camelopardalid meteor, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2010, at 03:49 Coordinated Universal Time (4:49 a.m. British Summer Time, Saturday, Oct. 6; 11:49 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, Friday, Oct. 5); Bill Cooke, "Camel Leopards and Comets," Watch the Skies, Oct. 8, 2010: Watch the Skies, via NASA Blogs @ https://blogs.nasa.gov/Watch_the_Skies/2010/10/08/post_1286563452288/

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