Sept 15/16 Meteors

Carl Hergenrother

Last was another great night of meteors. It was the darkest night I’ve yet measured at my home (over the past 2+ years) so that might be helping increase the number of meteors. Then again Bob also saw increased activity with his cameras (see his notes below).

From Bobs’s notes:  “Skies finally cleared over the San Diego area. The moon is now only a thin crescent so that helped too. Rates were impressive this morning although only 6 of the 49 seen were associated with any known meteor shower.”

Obs Date (UT)   TotTime  TOT SPO ANT SPE
TUS 2009-09-16  10h 01m   39  32  4   3
SDG 2009-09-16  09h 54m   49  43  1   5

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
SPE – September Perseids

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.

3 Comments

  1. Around 11:p.m. or 12:a.m. sept 15th, I saw what looked like a “Large” meteor. This is mabey the 3rd or 4th time in my 35 yrs that I have seen one. But this was a bit different. 1st off, I live in “Brightley lit” st.louis missouri. On the south side of town. This happened the night of sept 15th. The other meteors I have seen looked like brite stars shooting across the sky, the bright flash going out with in 2-3, seconds, and always slightely horozontal. (shotting across the sky). But this one was coming straight down, very slowly, compared to the others I’ve seen, which look to be traveling at blinding speeds. It was also pretty big, about the size of 3 average sized stars (as they would look to the naked eye on the ground) I could almost make out the “V” shaped look of the heat from it shooting upwards as it came down. This thing was pretty big. did anyone see this? someone who is a sky watcher had to see it, it was so big, coming straight down, moving slowly compared to others i’ve seen, very bright, and lasted some 6-7 seconds, but didnot burn out, i only lost sight of it for the tree’s.

  2. I live east of Kansas City in Blue Springs, Mo. I saw the same thing Wednesday night, Sept. 16th, around 10:00 or so in the southern sky, only this light was bigger and had a neon green glow to it.

  3. My husband and I live Northwest of Orangeville Ontario. We were arriving home at around 8:15 on the eveing if September 16th and witnessed a meteor falling.The light lasted about 5 full seconds and there seemed to be a slight explosion of light just before it went out. As falling stars stars go, this was unusually bright and long lasting.

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