Eta Cetids

This stream might be similar in nature to the Aurigids of February as it seems to possess very weak, almost nonexistent activity, with occasional fireballs thrown in. The duration of activity stretches from September 20 to November 2, while the maximum occurs during the first week of October from a radiant of α=15°, δ=-13°.

The first recognition of this area as a producer of fireballs came in 1964, when C. P. Olivier published the “Catalog of Fireball Radiants” as an American Meteor Society publication offered through Flower and Cook observatories. Designated radiant number 5148, it was based on 6-8 fireballs. The mean date of activity was given as October 4, with a radiant of α=10°, δ=-18°. Activity was also present three days before and after this mean.

One of the most spectacular fireballs from this radiant reached magnitude -20. It was photographed by 9 of the 16 cameras of the Prairie Network (designated 40503) on October 9.30, 1969, from a radiant of α=18.0°, δ=-17.7°. Another very bright stream member was detected by observers in Florida on October 8.3, 1972. Reaching a magnitude of -14, its radiant was determined as α=8°, δ=-11°.

The Author’s investigation of the 39,145 radio meteor orbits obtained by Z. Sekanina during the two sessions of the Radio Meteor Survey, has uncovered 16 orbits. The following orbit is the average of these radio meteor orbits and six photographic meteors obtained from McCrosky and Posen’s 1961 paper and B1963.