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 RA=15 deg, DEC=-13 deg.
The first recognition of this area as a producer of fireballs came in 1964,
when Charles 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 RA=10 deg,
DEC=-18 deg. 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 RA=18.0 deg,
DEC=-17.7 deg. 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 RA=8 deg, DEC=-11 deg.
The Author's investigation of the 39,145 radio meteor orbits obtained by
Zdenek 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 6 photographic meteors obtained from MP1961 and B1963.