Electronic Telegram No. 1088
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
INTERNATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION
M.S. 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
IAUSUBS@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or FAX 617-495-7231 (subscriptions)
CBAT@CFA.HARVARD.EDU (science)
URL http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html


REPORTING AND NAMING OF NEW METEOR SHOWERS
     Following the establishment of a "Task Group for Meteor Shower
Nomenclature" at the 2006 IAU General Assembly in Prague, with the
objective being to formulate a descriptive list of established meteor
showers, and following the adoption of a "Working List of Meteor Showers"
and a series of meteor-shower nomenclature rules (cf. IAU Information Bull.
99, Jan. 2007), the chair of the Task Group, Peter Jenniskens of the SETI
Institute, now reports that a process has been put in place to report new
meteor showers by adding showers to the current IAU Meteor Shower Working
List.  Only discoveries of probable showers that follow in part from new
data will be accepted.  Details are given at a new website:

   http://www.astro.amu.edu.pl/~jopek/MDC2007/index.php

(soon to be copied to http://www.astro.sk/~ne/IAUMDC/), which was developed
by Tadeusz J. Jopek of Poznan Observatory.  Jopek will act as the point of
contact for such new showers.  The website contains the current Working
List, as well as a List of Established Showers, with details on the
physical characteristics of each shower (to be expanded in the future).
In collaboration with the IAU's Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams,
a CBET will be issued periodically to indicate when new showers are added
to the Working List.
     The goal of subsequent research is to establish the validity of the
proposed shower and, if analysis confirms such validity, subsequently to
move the stream from the Working List to the "List of Established Showers".
Evidence that helps to establish a shower in the Working List (or to
eliminate a shower from the list) should be published in the literature,
and a copy of the paper should be provided to the Meteor Data Center (MDC).
Upon review of the evidence in the Task Group, the MDC will move that
stream from the Working List to the List of Established Showers.  Each
shower in the List of Established Showers will receive its official name
(and official recognition as being established) upon recommendation by
Commission 22 at forthcoming IAU General Assemblies.


NOTE: These 'Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams' are sometimes
      superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

                         (C) Copyright 2007 CBAT
2007 September 25                (CBET 1088)              Daniel W. E. Green