International Meteor Organization
The International Meteor Organization (IMO) was founded in 1988 and has more than 250 members now. IMO was created in response to an ever growing need for international cooperation of meteor amateur work. The collection of meteor observations by several methods from all around the world ensures the comprehensive study of meteor showers and their relation to comets and interplanetary dust.
You can read about the history, current aims and commissions of IMO. An additional page informs you about how to become a member the International Meteor Organization. Membership includes a subscription to WGN, the journal of the IMO.
Short term meteor activity outlook - Report your observations - Live ZHR graphs - Data archives - Observing handbook - Annual conference
The Quadrantid meteor shower is expected to peak between roughly 21h UT on January 3 to 06h UT on January 4 (see the shower calendar for details). New Moon creates ideal circumstances for observing the shower from northern hemisphere sites this year. From many such places, the shower's radiant is circumpolar, in northern Boötes, attaining a useful elevation only after local midnight, and rising higher in the sky towards morning twilight. This means places at European longitudes east to those of central Asia should be best-placed to record what happens.
The activity graph below is updated every 15 minutes based on visual observing reports submitted to the IMO - click on the graph for details.
The December issue of the IMO Journal is now in print. It will be posted shortly and subscribers can also immediately access the journal in PDF format. The contents this month:
Instructions for writing an article for WGN may be found in "Authors, Writing for WGN" [PDF].
The Geminids is one of the finest, and probably the most reliable, annual meteor shower. Activity exceeds 100 meteors per hour around December 14, with meteors radiating from a point near Castor in constellation Gemini. Geminids are slow, bright and occasionally colorful. Many observers consider the shower to be more spectacular than the famous Perseids in August, but the Geminids are less widely known because of the cold and often clouded December nights in the northern hemisphere.
This year the peak is expected in the morning of December 14 (roughly near 11h UT). Many tens of meteors per hour will be visible in the nights surrounding December 14, with highest rates occuring in the hours after local midnight when the radiant reaches its highest altitude in the sky and the moon has set. More information on the observing conditions can be found in the shower calendar.
The activity graph below is updated every 15 minutes based on visual observing reports submitted to the IMO - click on the graph for details.
The 30th International Meteor Conference will take place in Sibiu, Romania, from 2011 September 15 to 18. The local organization is in the hands of the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy (SARM). The participation fee including full board is currently set at 155 EUR.
Registration will be opened around mid-February. By that time, the web pages on the 2011 IMC at the IMO web site providing all relevant information will be operational. The current pre-announcement serves to allow all interested parties to plan for this event.
The Leonids reach their annual peak on November 17. Because the shower has continued to show fascinatingly variable activity in recent years (e.g., 2009, 2008, 2006), observers should be alert as often as conditions allow in all nights near the nominal peak.
Leonids can only be observed after the radiant in the constellation of Leo rises above the eastern horizon around local midnight (or indeed afterwards south of the equator). This year a waxing gibbous Moon will set around 2 to 3 am local time, providing excellent observing conditions in the hours before sunrise from pretty much any location on Earth. Further details may be found in the shower calendar.
The activity graph below is updated every 15 minutes based on visual observing reports submitted to the IMO - click on the graph for details.
The October issue of the IMO Journal is now in print. It will be posted shortly and subscribers can also immediately access the journal in PDF format. The contents this month:
Instructions for writing an article for WGN may be found in "Authors, Writing for WGN" [PDF].
