Nov 24/25 Meteors

Carl Hergenrother

Clouds were a problem all night long in Tucson. As a result, only 3 meteors were seen.

One of the meteors was a very nice, bright Southern Taurid that crossed almost the entire camera field of view (~60 degrees). What makes this meteor even more impressive is the fact that it was observed through thick cirrus. In the video below only one star is visible. [Even though there are 3 bright “stars” visible in the upper right part of the frame, the two “stars” closest to the right edge are not stars but “hot pixels”. “Hot pixels” are detector pixels that are brighter than normal.] The only actual star is Deneb, the brightest star in the constellation Cygnus.

05 pm MST.

Obs  Date (UT)   TotTime TOT SPO NTA STA AMO
TUS  2008-11-25  06h 57m  3   2   0   1   0

TUS – Camera in Tucson operated by Carl Hergenrother
SDG – Camera in San Diego operated by Bob Lunsford
TotTime – Total amount of time each camera looked for meteors
TOT – Total number of meteors detected
SPO – Sporadics (meteors not affiliated with any particular meteor shower)
NTA – Northern Taurids
STA – Southern Taurids
AMO – Alpha Monocerotids

Published by Carl Hergenrother

I am a professional astronomer specializing in the study of comets, asteroids and meteors. This blog will focus on my professional and amateur work in this field.

7 Comments

  1. I saw a similiar site last night around 7:40 pm EST in Kentucky northwest of Lexington. It was a very bright ball with long trailing tail falling low on the horizon from north to west. It was bright white ball with a much broader tail than the one in this picture. I would be interested in any information.

  2. I may have seen the same one in Minnesota. I was driving I35 north, and right about Albert Lee, I saw blue then white, and it was a very wide, and bright tail. It was very low in the sky, coming from east and going northwest, and almost horizontal. Then it was gone… WAY kool. The biggest and brightest I have ever seen.

  3. I saw a bright green trail last night (November 26th, 10pm) in Minneapolis. It traveled East to North with a 20 degree or so down arc. It must have landed somewhere.

  4. Hey Iowa & Minnesota! I think I saw the same one. November 26th 2008, I was heading North from IL to WI to eat turkey with the grandparents. I was on I-90 and I think it must have been about 9:30pm – 10:00pm CST. It was long and green and it went from the upper right to the lower left of the Eastern sky just a few inches above the horizon. It was really slow with a giant long sparkly tail and I remember saying Wow! I wonder if that fell into Lake Michigan?

  6. Saw a very similar sight as Jenny from IL. At 8:55pm on Nov. 26, 2008, I was northbound on I-39 between Packwaukee, WI and Westfield, WI, right by mile marker 104, and saw almost exactly the same scene as she described. SO glad I didn’t just imagine it!

  7. Thought I was seeing things, finally someone else who’d seen it. Same time frame (9:30pm-10:00ish) driving north in Northern Minnesota up by Grand Portage on Hwy 61(off of I35 North of Duluth) Not unusual for a shooting star but my passenger and i saw a flash of light in the horizon about 10 sec after in the north, almost like lightening pretty much lit up the northern sky. If anything i figure it landed in North Western Ontario up in the Canadian side. People at work still think we were seeing things…

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