2019 January Comae Berenicids Shower Earth’s Skies Jan. 20 to Jan. 27

Summary: The 2019 January Comae Berenicids shower Earth’s skies Jan. 20 to Jan. 27, the shower’s annual activity dates, with midpoint peaking Jan. 23 to 24.

January Comae Berenicid meteor shower appears to radiate from an area to the west of Diadem (Alpha Comae Berenices) and Vindemiatrix (Epsilon Virginis); Coma Berenices Hair of Berenice constellation map credit: IAU and Sky & Telescope (Roger Sinnott and Rick Fienberg; constellation patterns by Alan MacRoberts), CC BY 4.0 International, via IAU (International Astronomical Union)

The 2019 January Comae Berenicids shower Earth’s skies Sunday, Jan. 20, to Sunday, Jan. 27, the meteor shower’s annual activity dates, with an expected midpoint peak Wednesday, Jan. 23, to Thursday, Jan. 24.

Robert Lunsford, the American Meteor Society’s Meteor Activity Outlook weekly columnist, places best viewing during pre-dawn hours. The January Comae Berenicid shower’s radiant (apparent point of origin) is positioned well above the horizon before midnight local standard time. Best viewing begins around 3 a.m. local standard time.

Lunsford describes the January Comae Berenicid meteors as swift-moving. Entry velocity during the meteors’ encounter with Earth’s atmosphere is 64 kilometers per second (39.7 miles per second).

The January Comae Berenicids are visible in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Lunsford predicts an hourly rate of less than one at all viewing locations.

The IMO (International Meteor Organization) Video Meteor Network’s report for January 2013 tallied more than 13,000 meteors from 71 cameras during observing time of nearly 5,000 hours. The report assigned “almost 400 meteors” to the January Comae Berenicids. During the shower’s activity dates between Jan. 21 and Jan. 27, the report found that “there is no stronger meteor source in the sky.”

The January Comae Berenicid meteor shower’s name reflects an apparent point of origin in Coma Berenices the Hair of Berenice constellation. The shower’s meteors appear to radiate from the constellation’s southeastern region, near Virgo the Virgin constellation’s northwestern boundary. Lunsford places the January Comae Berenicid radiant during peak activity at five degrees southwest of Coma Berenices’ Diadem (Alpha Comae Berenices) and five degrees northwest of Virgo’s Vindemiatrix (Epsilon Virginis).

Alpha Comae Berenices (α Comae Berenices; Alf Com, α Com) is the second brightest star in the not-so-bright constellation of Coma Berenices. The bluish fourth magnitude star is actually a binary, comprising two components designated as Alpha Comae Berenices A, known traditionally as Diadem, and Alpha Comae Berenices B. Diadem’s traditional name reflects the binary star’s representation of the crown worn by Queen Berenice.

Epsilon Virginis (ε Virginis; Epsilon Vir, ε Vir) is the third brightest star in constellation Virgo, which reigns as the second largest constellation in Earth’s sky and as the largest of the 12 zodiacal constellations. The third magnitude, yellowish-hued star marks Virgo the Virgin’s right forearm or wing.

Epsilon Virginis is known as traditionally as Vindemiatrix (from Latin for feminine grape gatherer) or Vindemiator (from Latin for male grape gatherer). Dr. Mohammad Heydari-Malayeri, astrophysicist at l’Observatoire de Paris, suggests that the star’s traditional name derives from its first visibility at the time of grape harvesting.

Ancient Greece and ancient Egypt’s Berenice II (ca. 267/266-221 BCE) is the namesake of Coma Berenices constellation. She was born into the ruling family of the Greek colony of Cyrenaica (Cyrene) in North Africa (modern-day eastern coastal Libya) and succeeded her father, King Magnus of Crenaica (ca. 320-250 BCE). She became queen and co-regent of Egypt through her second husband, Ptolemy III Euergetes (284-222 BCE), Egypt’s third Ptolemaic ruler. Constellation Coma Berenices memorializes the queen’s votive offering of her long, amber hair on Aphrodite’s altar for her husband’s victory in the Third Syrian War (246-241 BCE).

The January Comae Berenicid meteor shower’s parent body is undetermined. A possible candidate is Comet Lowe, designed as comet 1913 I. Danish and American meteor astronomer Peter Jenniskens describes Comet 1913 I (Lowe) as an “intrinsically bright comet” in Meteor Showers and Their Parent Comets (2006). Jenniskens deems the identification of Comet Lowe as the parent body of the January Comae Berenicid shower’s retrograde-orbiting meteoroids as “. . . likely; if indeed the comet exists.”

The problem with Comet Lowe traces to errors in the discoverer’s telegraphed announcement, received Jan. 7, 1913, by South Australian government astronomer George Frederick Dodwell (Feb. 13, 1879-Aug. 10, 1963) at Australia’s Adelaide Observatory. Dodwell noted that B. Lowe erred in calculating the comet’s positions by way of the celestial coordinate system of right ascension (geographic longitude’s celestial equivalent) and declination (geographic latitude’s celestial equivalent).

Lowe used a 3-inch telescope for his observations. He noted that the comet was not a naked eye object and could not be discerned with field glasses. Through his telescope, the comet was “distinct, although small” and had a tail.

Lowe’s discovery happened Dec. 31, 1912, at 3 a.m. He first saw the comet near Spica in Virgo the Virgin constellation. Subsequent observations on Jan. 3, 5, 6 and 9 in 1913 revealed the comet’s progress through Hydra the Water Snake and Scorpio the Scorpion constellations and movement toward the Milky Way.

The takeaways for the 2019 January Comae Berenicids, which shower Earth’s skies annually from Jan. 20 to Jan. 27, are that the peak of shower’s swiftly moving meteors occurs Jan. 23 to Jan. 24 and that the shower’s parent body might be mysterious Comet 1913 I (Lowe).

fragment of a faience vase with depiction of Berenike (Berenice) II of Egypt, namesake of Coma Berenices constellation, Berenike II of Egypt, created during the reign of Ptolemy III Euergetes and Berenike II; vase originating from Egypt's Alexandra region; Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gallery 134 (Arts under the Ptolemies 2): Public Domain, via Metropolitan Museum of Art

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

January Comae Berenicid meteor shower appears to radiate from an area to the west of Diadem (Alpha Comae Berenices) and Vindemiatrix (Epsilon Virginis); Coma Berenices Hair of Berenice constellation map credit: IAU and Sky & Telescope (Roger Sinnott and Rick Fienberg; constellation patterns by Alan MacRoberts), CC BY 4.0 International, via IAU (International Astronomical Union) @ https://www.iau.org/public/themes/constellations/#com

fragment of a faience vase with depiction of Berenike (Berenice) II of Egypt, namesake of Coma Berenices constellation, Berenike II of Egypt, created during the reign of Ptolemy III Euergetes and Berenike II; vase originating from Egypt's Alexandra region; Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gallery 134 (Arts under the Ptolemies 2): Public Domain, via Metropolitan Museum of Art @ https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/551799

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