Meteor rates continue to be low. Last night the rates were surprisingly low. Though there were clouds for the 1st few hours of the night, the prime morning hours were clear. There are a few reasons I can think of to explain the low rates such as the nearly Full Moon and lots of dust in the air (its been windy in Tucson the past few days). Then again maybe it was just a low activity night.
As I’ve said many times before, the meteor doldrums of February/March/April are getting old. Bring on the Lyrids…
From Bob’s notes for Apr 6/7: “Rates for the Antihelion radiant were back to normal this morning.” [When comapred with the excess of meteors from the anithelion region on the previous night.
Obs Date (UT) TotTime TOT SPO ANT TUS 2009-04-09 07h 54m 2 2 0 TUS 2009-04-08 03h 12m 2 2 0 SDG 2009-04-07 08h 33m 19 17 2 TUS 2009-04-07 09h 02m 8 7 1
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
The Transient Sky - Comets, Asteroids, Meteors 