Sept 7/8 Meteors and the September Perseids

Last night was nice and clear. The bright Moon is still a problem. This was especially true in my camera that points furthest south. The Moon was in the field of view for the last few hours of the night. The Moon is so bright that it washes out about half of the field. Still the 2 cameras were able to detect 17 meteors. Almost all of them appear to be sporadic and not associated with any particular shower.

Tonight marks the 1-year anniversary of  a surprise meteor outburst. Last year on the night of September 9 an outburst of bright meteors was observed radiating from the constellation of Perseus. The display lasted for about 4 hours and it produce some bright fireballs. There is still some uncertainty as to whether the outburst was caused by the September Perseid shower or the September Epsilon Perseid shower or even whether these two showers are really one and the same.

There is no guarantee that shower will experience enhanced activity tonight. In fact, it probably won’t. Still I’ll be looking forward to seeing what my cameras detect.

Obs Date (UT)   TotTime  TOT SPO ANT AUR SPE
TUS 2009-09-08  09h 45m   17  15  1   0   1
SDG 2009-09-08  04h 11m   5   4   1   0   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)
ANT – Antihelions
AUR – Aurigids
SPE – September Perseids