June 2/3/4/5 Meteors

Carl Hergenrother

Last night was clouded out. The previous 2 nights were nice and clear resulting in a total of 22 meteors. We are still in a period with no obvious shower activity.

Obs  Date (UT)   TotTime TOT SPO ANT
TUS  2009-06-05  00h 00m  0   0   0
TUS  2009-06-04  07h 56m  8   4   4
TUS  2009-06-03  07h 57m  14  12  2

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

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. what happened in the sky tonight. it almost looked like the sun was behind clouds that were thick and amost looked like a water fall. BUT the sun was to the right of this bright lite! the light was huge and the clouds looks as if it gave way to the bright light as it was pushing its way into our atmosphere. I have never seen anything like that.june 6, 2009

    1. Hi Diane,

      I’m not exactly sure what you saw. I can make an educated guess though based on the 2 of the things you wrote: that it appeared like the Sun was behind a cloud, and that it was located to the right of the Sun.

      It is possible that you saw a ‘sundog’ or ‘parhelion’. These optical effects sort of look like very bright detached rainbows that are located ~22 degrees from the Sun and directly left and/or right of the Sun. Depending on the clouds in the sky, you might see ‘sundogs’ to the right and left of the Sun or just one to the right or left.

      They are caused by sunlight being refracted towards the direction of the observer (.i.e. you) by flat ice crystals in clouds. Similar to rainbows, though in those cases, it is liquid raindrops that do the refracting.

      You can find a good collection of sundog images here:
      http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/dogim0.htm

      The above website also contains info on lots of atmospheric effects that are caused by the interplay of clouds and sunlight. If you find a picture or description that fits what you saw, let me know. If not, then well have to think of something else.

      Hope this helps,
      – Carl

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