Volantid Meteors 2020

P. Jenniskens, SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center, reports that low-light video-camera observations by "Cameras for Allsky Meteor Surveillance" (CAMS) New Zealand (J. Baggaley), CAMS Australia (M. Towner), CAMS South Africa (T. Cooper), CAMS Namibia (T. Hanke), and CAMS Chile (S. Heathcote and E. Jehin) have detected the Volantid meteors (IAU shower number 758) during the nights of 2020 Dec. 27 (five meteors) and 28 (nine meteors) (cf. website URL http://cams.seti.org/FDL/ for the date of 2020 Dec. 28). The radiant of the shower in the solar-longitude span 275.8-276.7 degrees (equinox J2000.0) was at high southern declination in the constellation Volans, with geocentric coordinates R.A. = 123.8 +/- 2.5 degrees, Decl. = -69.2 +/- 1.2 degrees (equinox J2000.0), and entry velocity 30.2 +/- 1.0 km/s. The orbital elements calculated are q = 0.979 +/- 0.003 AU, a = 2.60 +/- 0.50 AU, e = 0.623 +/- 0.070, i = 50.7 +/- 1.0 degrees, Peri. = 350.9 +/- 2.8 degrees, and Node = 96.2 +/- 0.3 degrees (equinox J2000.0). The shower was discovered on New Year's Eve 2015 and lasted several days into January 2016 (cf. CBET 4261); it had not been detected since then. If this shower behaves this year in the same manner as in 2015-2016, it is expected to grow in activity and peak on New Year's Eve (2020 Dec. 31).