Dec 9/10 Meteors

Carl Hergenrother

After a few nights of rain, clouds, and fog, the weather has improved greatly in both Tucson and San Diego.

Bob had hist best night so far this year. From his notes: “The skies have cleared temporarily and despite the bright moon, an impressive number of meteors were recorded last night and this morning. The 120 total meteors recorded was the highest number obtained from home so far this year. Impressive numbers of Geminids (29), Antihelions (12), and Monocerotids (10) were recorded last night. The normally quite evening hours were also filled with activity. I wonder how many more meteors would have been recorded had there not been a bright moon? Hopefully the weather will remain favorable as close to the Geminid maximum as possible!”

The number of Geminids should continue to increase as they build towards their peak this weekend.

Obs  Date (UT)   TotTime TOT SPO ANT GEM MON PUP HYD
TUS  2008-12-10  08h 45m  33  16  6   6   0   1   4
SDG  2008-12-10  11h 42m 120  63  12  29  10  3   3

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)
ANT – Antihelions
GEM – Geminids
MON – December Monocerotids
PUP – Puppids/Velids Complex
HYD – Sigma (σ-) Hydrids

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.

2 Comments

  1. I saw a meteor on December 10, 2008 at around 5:45am MST or 11:45UT. I live in east El Paso TX. Im in the military and I was leaving for pt when I looked up at the Big Dipper and thats when I saw it zoom across the sky. It was amazing.

  2. Did anyone notice a meteor shower on December 5th? I could almost swear that my windshield was hit by a rock on that night between 7 and 9. It seemed as if something came out of nowhere and hit me. I looked around and couldn’t see any damage at that time. Two days later I saw the windshield. It really looks different from anything I have seen before. My daughter-in-law’s brother said he saw a meteor a couple of weeks ago coming down around Altura. That’s where I was; on Altura making a left turn onto Pershing when it happened.

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