C/1911 N1 (Kiess) is a

non-periodic comet The following is a list of comets with a very high Orbital eccentricity, eccentricity (generally 0.99 or higher) and a Orbital period, period of over 1,000 years that do not quite have a high enough Escape velocity, velocity to escape the Solar Sys ...

discovered by Carl Clarence Kiess on 6 July 1911. The comet has been identified as the parent body of the

Aurigids Aurigids is a meteor shower occurring primarily within September. The comet Kiess (C/1911 N1) is the source of the material that causes the meteors. The comet's orbital period is approximately 2000 to 2100 years, with showers observed in the ...

meteor shower.

Observational history

The comet was discovered by Carl Clarence Kiess at

Lick Observatory The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the University of California. It is on the summit of Mount Hamilton (California), Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, United States. The ...

on a

photographic plate Photographic plates preceded film as the primary medium for capturing images in photography. These plates, made of metal or glass and coated with a light-sensitive emulsion, were integral to early photographic processes such as heliography, d ...

obtained in the morning hours of 6 July 1911 with the Crocker photographic telescope. The comet appeared as a distorted nebulous object with a short tail. The presence of the comet was confirmed visually the next day. The comet had a well condensed nucleus and a faint tail. In photographs the tail was four degrees long. The comet then was of seventh magnitude and moving southwards. A preliminary orbit suggested the comet was past its perihelion upon discovery and it was calculated that it would approach Earth at a distance of on 20 August. On 19 August the comet was reported to be visible with

naked eye Naked eye, also called bare eye or unaided eye, is the practice of engaging in visual perception unaided by a magnification, magnifying, Optical telescope#Light-gathering power, light-collecting optical instrument, such as a telescope or microsc ...

, peaking at an estimated apparent magnitude of 5. The comet had been suggested in 1911 to be the return of comet C/1790 A1 (Herschel), also known by its old designation, 1790 I. However, further calculations revealed that the orbit of comet Kiess had an eccentricity too high for an orbital period of 122 years, with the orbit calculated by Louis Lindsey in 1932 indicating an orbital period of 1,903 years.

Meteor shower

The comet has been identified as the parent body of the

meteor shower that takes place between 25 August and 8 September every year, usually with a

zenithal hourly rate In astronomy, the zenithal hourly rate (ZHR) of a meteor shower is the number of meteors a single observer would see in an hour of peak activity if the radiant was at the zenith, assuming the seeing conditions are perfect (when and where stars w ...

(ZHR) of 7 meteors per hour. The shower has been known to have experienced outbursts in 1935, 1986, 1994, and 2007. The 2007 outburst was the first predicted for a shower associated with a long period comet and reached a peak ZHR of about 200 meteors per hour. The annual shower and the outbursts have slightly different radiant points, indicating the presence of different components in the debris stream.

References

Notes

Citations

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kiess, 1911 N1 Non-periodic comets 19110706 Meteor shower progenitors Near-Earth comets