Corvids

This shower seems to have been of temporary character as, since its discovery in 1937, no trace of it has appeared in either the visual, photographic or radar surveys.
The Corvids were discovered by Cuno Hoffmeister during a meteor expedition to Southwest Africa in 1937-1938. The shower was first noted on June 25, just two days after full moon, and on June 26 the ZHR reached a value of 13. Rates declined thereafter and the last remnants were noted on July 3.
Hoffmeister concluded that maximum came on June 27.0 (Solar Longitude=94.9 deg). The radiant was determined as RA=191.6 deg, DECL=-19.2 deg on June 28, although it was described as diffuse, with a diameter of nearly 15 deg. Hoffmeister computed two orbits based on semimajor axes of 2.5 and 3.0 AU and noted "a rather striking resemblance to the orbit of Comet Tempel 3-Swift, except for argument of perihelion...." Interestingly, today's knowledge of asteroids has produced another possibility which seems more attractive than Hoffmeister's---Apollo asteroid 1979VA. Hoffmeister's orbits as well as the orbits of periodic comet Tempel-Swift and 1979VA are as follows:

AOP AN i q e a
I 38.9 274.9 2.5 0.930 0.628 2.5
II 7.7 274.9 3.1 1.013 0.662 3.0
P/Tempel-Swift 139.6 264.4 7.1 1.234 0.619 3.240
1979VA 89.60 271.63 2.78 0.982 0.627 2.635

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