Dec 11/12 Meteors

Carl Hergenrother

Today we welcome a new camera to the Transient Sky family. Salvador Aguirre is operating his MetRec-run PARENI system down in Hermosillo in the Mexican state of Sonora. Hermosillo is 217 miles to the south of Tucson. Though the cities are relatively close PARENI and SALSA3 will not be seeing the same meteors. That is not the case with our all-sky Sentinel cameras and in fact we both recorded a mutual fireball back on Nov 29 UT. Salvador and I have been working hard for the past year to get his system up and running. Though he’s no stranger to this blog, let’s all welcome him and PARENI!

Check out Salvador’s blog for images of the Geminids from his all-sky camera.

The Geminids saw a significant bump up in activity last night with 22 detections (up from 8 and 5 the past two nights). Tonight should see that number more than double. Though Tuesday morning is maximum, Monday morning will see good rates and it would be worth it for visual observers to watch then as well.

Last night also marked SALSA3’s 78th consecutive night with a meteor detection.

Obs  Date(UT)      Time    TOT SPO ANT GEM HYD PSU PUP DAD DLM MON COM
SAL3 2010-12-12   11h 18m   45  11  2   22  3   1   0   0   0   2   4
ALLS 2010-12-12   11h 34m   22  6   1   8   4   0   0   1   1   1   0
HERM 2010-12-12   10h 34m   29  15  3   7   1   -   2   -   -   -   1

SAL3 - SALSA3 camera in Tucson (Carl Hergenrother)
ALLS - Near all-sky camera in Tucson (Carl Hergenrother)
VIST - Visual observations from Tucson (Carl Hergenrother)
HERM - PARENI camera in Hermosillo (Salvador Aguirre)
SDG - Camera in San Diego operated by Bob Lunsford
Time - 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   
GEM - Geminids
HYD - Sigma Hydrids
PSU - Psi Ursa Majorids
PUP - Puppids-Vellids
DAD - December Alpha Draconids
DLM - December Leonis Minorids
MON - Monocerotids

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.

1 Comment

  1. Clear the entire night with great Geminid totals considering the urban location.

    Obs Date(UT) Time TOT SPO ANT GEM HYD PSU PUP DAD DLM MON COM
    SDG 2010-12-13 10h 23m 241 72 7 171 3 3 2 3 4 4 2

    SAL3 – SALSA3 camera in Tucson (Carl Hergenrother)
    ALLS – Near all-sky camera in Tucson (Carl Hergenrother)
    VIST – Visual observations from Tucson (Carl Hergenrother)
    HERM – PARENI camera in Hermosillo (Salvador Aguirre)
    SDG – Camera in San Diego operated by Bob Lunsford
    Time – 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
    GEM – Geminids
    HYD – Sigma Hydrids
    PSU – Psi Ursa Majorids
    PUP – Puppids-Vellids
    DAD – December Alpha Draconids
    DLM – December Leonis Minorids
    MON – Monocerotids

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