Detection by Radar of a New Meteor Shower

Abstract

British Astronomical Association Circular No. 282 gives a short note from Dr. A. C. B. Lovell, director of radar research on meteors at the University of Manchester, who has announced the discovery of a new shower during daylight. For some time radio reflexion has been used to study the ionization caused by meteors in the upper atmosphere (see Nature, July 19, pp. 74 and 76). Certain radiants have been selected and studied carefully by means of a beam of radiation about ± 6° wide which can be directed to any point in the heavens, and Mr. J. A. Clegg has devised a method by which it is possible to determine very accurately the radiant of a stream. No details about this method have been published up to the present, but it may be assumed that it is capable of providing more accurate results than those obtained from visual observations. It is interesting to know that the investigation of the radiants of the well-known showers during the autumn and winter shows, apart from minor variations, that the radiants determined by Mr. J. P. M. Prentice, director of the Meteor Section, British Astronomical Association, and his colleagues, agree closely with those found by Mr. Clegg's method.