January is usually the beginning of the doldrums for meteor observing. With no major showers till the summer and background Sporadic rates at an annual low, rates should start dropping and stay low for a few months. Still our cameras are picking up a healthy number of meteors especially from the minor December Leonis Minorid shower.
Usually I run 2 cameras from my site in Tucson. For the past 2 nights I’ve only be operating my zenith pointing camera. The north facing camera has been temporarily sidelined while I use its computer test a new all-sky camera. Hopefully this camera will be one of many all-sky cameras in southern AZ for the detection and study of bright fireballs. If I get any good ones over the next few nights I’ll be sure to post them here.
Bob’s notes from the night of Jan 5/6 : “Thick cirrus clouds delayed the start of my observing session tonight. After 2240 PST the clouds were thin enough to allow observations. It was never totally clear tonight as thin cirrus moved in and out all morning long. The last 53 minutes produced some good activity.”
… and for the night of Jan 4/5 : “Thick cirrus clouds delayed the start of my observing session tonight. After 2200 PST the skies remained clear most of the night. The December Leonis Minorids were quite active tonight producing eight meteors.”
Obs Date(UT) Time TOT SPO ANT DLM AHY JLE QUA TUS 2010-01-07 07h 24m 13 9 0 3 0 0 1 SDG 2010-01-07 08h 53m 52 41 4 4 0 - 3 TUS 2010-01-06 12h 07m 17 13 2 1 0 0 1 SDG 2010-01-06 07h 13m 37 30 3 3 0 0 1 TUS 2010-01-05 11h 44m 24 13 4 5 0 0 2 SDG 2010-01-05 07h 53m 51 38 3 8 1 0 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 DLM - December Leonis Minorids AHY - Alpha Hydrids JLE - January Leonids QUA - Quadrantids
The Transient Sky - Comets, Asteroids, Meteors 