The Sociedad de Observadores de Meteoros y Cometas de España is a group of astronomers and dedicated observers of meteors, comets and asteroids. Since its foundation in 1987, SOMYCE has been one of the most active groups in the field of visual meteor observations. The efforts of SOMYCE members, both observationally and theoretically, have resulted in several papers published in the professional and amateur literature.

 
1. Introduction.

SOMYCE is a national, non-profit association whose main aim is the observation and analysis of interplanetary matter (meteors, comets and asteroids). At present, SOMYCE has about 30 active members who live in different cities of Spain.

Founded in 1987, the main goals of SOMYCE are:
 
To coordinate the efforts of spanish observers of meteors, comets and asteroids.
 
♦ To collect and analyse the data obtained by both members and non-members of SOMYCE. SOMYCE gives full support to the International Meteor Organization (IMO), and takes care of some of the input into their databases.
 
♦ To make all observations carried out by spanish observers available to the international community.
 
♦ To investigate the field of interplanetary matter with special emphasis in meteors, comets and asteroids.

 ♦ To form new meteor and comet observers by giving them information about the most suitable methods.

 ♦ To inform the general public about interplanetary matter related phenomena.


In order to achieve these goals, SOMYCE is structured in several groups covering the whole spectrum of observational methods. In addition to this structure, many SOMYCE members work together within local groups.

If you want more information about SOMYCE, its publications, or simply you wish to join us, please do not hesitate and contact our Secretary


2. Commisions and Council.

SOMYCE commissions are independent working groups which perform observations and analysis of specific events in meteor and comet astronomy. Nowadays five commissions are fully operational (visual, video, photographic, fireballs and comets). Data from other organizations or non-SOMYCE members are most welcome!

Commisions.
 
Visual and video Commission: Orlando Benítez Sánchez.
Fireball Commision: Francisco Ocaña González.
Fotographic Commission: José Carlos Millán.
Radio Commision: Enric Fraile Algeciras
 
Council.
 
PRESIDENT: Orlando Benítez Sánchez.
SECRETARY: José Carlos Millán
 
Other Council members:
Francisco Alberto Rodríguez Ramírez.

 
3. Papers published by SOMYCE members.
 
Here we give a list of some of our contributions to meteor and cometary science. This list is by no means complete, particularly the section of non-refereed papers.
 
Refereed papers:
 
Kidger, M.R., 1993, The 1991 outburst of comet P/Metcalf-Brewington: a study of the light curve, Earth, Moon and Planets 63, p. 179-185.
 
Kidger, M.R., 1993, Some comments on the identification of medieval meteor showers recorded by the Arabs, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 34, p. 331.

Bellot Rubio, L.R., 1994, Dependence of the population index on the radiant zenithal distance, WGN (the Journal of the International Meteor Organization) 22, 13.

Bellot Rubio, L.R., 1994, Spatial number densities and errors from photographic meteor observations under very high activity, WGN (the Journal of the International Meteor Organization) 22, 118.
 
Kidger, M.R., 1994, The Frequency of Appearance of Bright Naked-Eye Comets Since 1750, Earth, Moon and Planets 66, p. 231.
 
Bellot Rubio, L.R., 1995, Effects of a dependence of meteor brightness on the entry angle, Astronomy & Astrophysics 301, p. 602.
 
Bellot Rubio, L.R., 1995, Quasicontinuous fragmentation parameters and densities of meteoroids from photographic observations, submitted to Astronomy & Astrophysics.
 
Kidger, M.R., 1995, Comet Hale-Bopp (1995 O1): possible photometric evolution, in press, Earth, Moon and Planets.
 
Kidger M.R, Serra-Ricart M., Bellot Rubio L.R., Casas R., , 1996, Evolution of a spiral jet in the inner coma of Comet Hale-Bopp (1995 O1), Astrophysical Journal 461, L119.
 

 

4. Meteors: the journal of SOMYCE.
 
The fourmonthly journal Meteors is published by SOMYCE and has a mean circulation of about 50 issues. It is the most important channel of communication for SOMYCE members. Meteors was first edited in 1987 and, up to now, 65 issues have been published. The journal is written in Spanish, but English abstracts are provided for each article. Meteors is sent free of charge to SOMYCE members and meteor organizations around the world.
 
Our journal contains research papers as well as more introductory articles for beginners. The various sections of Meteors are:
 
News. Here outstanding news about SOMYCE or special scientific events are commented on.
 
Letters to Meteors. This section allows the observers to express their personal opinions and points of view.
 
Papers. The core of Meteors. Here we publish research and educational articles on meteors, comets and asteroids.
 
Local groups In this section, each group of observers let other SOMYCE members know about its history, members, activities and main results.
 
Reports of the Commisions. Usually, each issue of Meteors contains the reports of activity of several commisions. In these reports the directors give an account of the observations received and a list with the contributing observers. Sometimes, preliminar results are presented.
 
Ephemerids. A very important aim of Meteors is to keep the observers informed on all events of interest in the field of comets and meteors. Each two months, Meteor publishes notes for the observers, a radiant list of active showers and ephemerids of visible comets.
 
The editorial board of Meteors wants to encourage you to submit papers or photographs of meteors and comets. Any contribution can be sent to Orlando Benítez Sánchez.
 
Finally, you might want to read the abstracts of the papers published in the last issues of Meteors. This information is available too.
 
 
6. Meteor Dataase ("Archivos de Observaciones") 

On 2006, SOMYCE (Sociedad de Observadores de Meteoros y Cometas de España)  edited a first DVD edition with all the Spanish meteor observations: visual scanned observations, video images with MetRec, photographic images, radio counts and telescopic charts. All, collected in a case with four DVD. This data base store about 17.2 Gb.

We edited a limited edition of 100 copies to send to SOMYCE members, Astronomical Societies of Spain and IMO members. Unfortunately, the cost of this edition it has done impossible to send a copy to all the IMO members, and therefore we have made a selection, and only 21 cases have been sent to IMO members.
 
This information can be free copied for personal use, divulgation, amateurs and researchers. If you write a paper, this information can be taken indicating the autor and the reference: “Archivos de observaciones de la Sociedad de Observadores de Meteoros y Cometas de España –SOMYCE-, 1ª Edición, octubre 2006.”
 
Briefly, we resume the information available in each DVD:
 
DVD1: Visual Meteor Database from 1987 to 1995. All this observations are in JPG images. Are the original reports with data and charts scanned with great effort during last five years. The key is:
 
DDddMMAAAA-----aNdN.jpg
 
ej: 2627091998BENORp1d1
 
DDdd: day
 
MM: month
 
AAAA: year
 
-----: IMO Code
 
“a” can be:
 
p: report
 
c: chart
 
r: summary
 
e: train report
 
NdN: “1d1” or “1d5” tell us how many report, or charts are in the observation.
 
Photographic meteor database from 1998, and 1999 Leonids and a lot of images classified by months. Some of them are not data, but we collect by historical reasons. Data are in txt or excel files.
 
DVD2: Comet observations, the rest of Photographic meteor database from November, August and December months. Video Meteor data base from camera TIMES 4 and TIMES 5 with full frame images. If you need a complete data in postdate format, we recommend download the updates files from IMO web site www.imo.net or www.metrec.org
 
DVD 3: Fireballs report form 1982 to 2003, some photos, and the Telescopic database (charts and reports) All codes are similar to the Visual Scanned reports. Video Data base of TIMES 4: August 2000, 2001 (complete, except March, August, October and December)
 
DVD 4: Visual Meteor Data Base (1985 and 1986 reports), the rest of the Photographic database and Video observations of TIMES 4 camera (Intensified camera, TIMES 5 is a Watec 902-H)

As you can see, there is a lot of useful information for the meteor observer. If need copy all o part of this information you can contact with us in archivosobservaciones -at-somyce.org More information about SOMYCE can be found in our web site www.somyce.org

A second, and fully completed edition was edited on 2011, and can be downloaded from this FTP server.

 

 

  • Vista de impactos Artículos 1190512

Copyright 1988-2023 © Sociedad de Observadores de Meteoros y Cometas de España. Se permite la reproducción parcial siempre que se cite fuente y autor.

Save
Cookies user preferences
We use cookies to ensure you to get the best experience on our website. If you decline the use of cookies, this website may not function as expected.
Accept all
Decline all
Cookies Esenciales
Estas cookies son necesarias para que el sitio web funcione correctamente.