This is more like it. After 2+ months of very low meteor rates, May brings rates to be excited about. This is due to 3 factors. 1) The weather is great. May is in the middle of Tucson’s dry season. Though high cirrus is possible and you can’t rule out the rare rain event, it is usually hot and bone dry. Yesterday’s high was 101F and the humidity was a paltry 4%. 2) We have 2 active showers producing a few meteors per night, the Eta Aquarids and Eta Lyrids. 3) The number of background Sporadics are slowly increasing from their annual low in the Spring.
Obs Date (UT) TotTime TOT SPO ANT ETA ELY TUS 2009-05-11 07h 42m 9 4 2 1 2 TUS 2009-05-10 08h 29m 15 8 2 4 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
ETA – Eta Aquarids
ELY – Eta Lyrids
The Transient Sky - Comets, Asteroids, Meteors 