Meteor shower, not Perseid?

[Heimdall]

Sky was clear last night so I decided to go out about 10 to have a look for the Perseids, I seen quite a few meteors but they were in a south eastwards direction and even one or two south west, I thought that they were suppose to be in the north east. I read that there were a few meteor showers this month but I couldnt see any where I thought the Perseids should be. Have I got it wrong or was it a different shower?

[Davey-T]

They all start from a centre point called the radiant and spread out in all directions like a clock face, if the trail traces back to the Perseid radiant its probably a Perseid, if its at right angles to it it's not.

Dave

[ronin]

Perseids are basically North East or East, so could not be from there.

There is a minor one from Cygnus but it is so minor that it could be difficult to recognise.

Where is Capricorn at the present?

Quick check and it is SE and there was a sort of "flat" shower from there (no real peak) may have been the tail end of that one.

Seems the Capricorn one and an Aquarius one sort of overlap with regards time and the bit of the sky.

So may have been a bunch of those that were swept up.

Wiki List

Saguaroastro

Second one lists more but I think they exaggerte the number per hour a little. :eek:

[Ibbo!]

A persied can be seen any where in the sky as long as it can be traced back to the radiant it is a perseid.

As stated ther are a couple of minor - very minor displays on at the moment less than 5 / hour

Also the Perseids tend to be very fast

[damnut]

The shower here tonight was definitely not related to the perseids....

[ronin]

There are in effect showers just about all the time, most so minor that they are not woth identifing, if 3 in an hour come from one part of the sky is it really a "shower" ?? Some are logged down to that, one or two seem to have so low a count they are not specified. If the count is that low is it really a "shower".

Meteors come in from everywhere, Perseids, Geminids Leonids etc are more numerous and conveniently we can say where to look and additionally when (within reason), but that is where it would seem to end.

Wonder how many are not strictly "meteors" as in comet debris but bits falling off of a satellite and other manmade junk.

Saguaroastro lists a good number but the American Meteor Society has the showers classified into Major, Minor, Variable and Weak: AMS

There are lots of "showers" The weak Kappa Cygnids and Alpha Capricornids overlap with Perseids and are from the other side.