Meteor Shower
The September Perseids meteor shower is not to be confused with the stronger event that happened in August. Last year this meteor shower had decent outbursts, but this can’t be anticipated for this year. Meteor showers are very erratic so the best way to find out how lively they are is to observe. The September Perseids overlap the δ-Aurigids and are generally seen in the same area because the shower’s radiants are so close to each other. This shower will peak on September 9 in the morning hours where less than seven meteors per hour will be seen in the eastern sky near the constellation Perseus. Visual observation of this meteor shower will be hindered by a waning gibbous moon with three-quarters of the Moon illuminated through the peak. Light, either natural or man-made, is always a factor for viewing a meteor shower and because this event is not thought of as a major meteor shower there will probably be modest activity.
I take pleasure in searching for meteors in the sky and because there is extra activity, I will be gazing at the pre-dawn sky hoping to see some extra meteors. If you plan to look, don’t expect much. I hope you enjoyed this little anecdote.
Join the Meteor Blog newsletter and keep your head up!
- Meteor Mark
on Sep 8th, 2009 at 7:21 am
Sept. 8th, 2009 at approx. 4:25 a.m. Central time, I saw a fantasic meteorite. I can only assume it had bounced once as I had seen a flash of light on tops of the corn fields and then moments later I saw another flash of bright light and a large debris field following the meteorite. It lasted about 2 seconds. I am assuming it was from one of these “minor” meteor showers as I’m not sure where Perseus was in the sky. I was facing approximately due west when I spotted this somewhere north of Dubuque, Iowa. I was on the Wisconsin side of border. It was awesome!!! First one of this magnitude that I have ever seen in my 56 years.
Ken
on Sep 8th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Ken,
Thanks for the comment. Perseus is in the eastern sky. The term “minor” meteor shower has nothing to do with the size or intensity of meteors one will see. It has to do with the number of meteors one will see per hour during a shower’s peak.
You may also find the term “meteorite” in our glossary and find it is different from what you saw, which was a “Fireball” or “Bolide” with a “Persistent Train”.
Thank you for inspiring me to add to the glossary the difference between a minor meteor shower, a meteor shower and a meteor storm, I will be adding those within the next few hours or so.
Keep your head up,
- Meteor Mark
on Sep 8th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
I am so happy I found your website! I believe I saw the same thing as Ken did. Approx 4:25 AM, Sep. 8, 09, I just happened to wake up, and I THOUGHT I saw a bright flash of lightning to the West (I live NE of Dubuque, IA on top of a bluff), I immediately looked out the window and then saw a large blaze of yellow-white light pass above, leaving what appeared to be a trail of glowing embers behind it, fading to a smoke-like tail, and seemed to last about 5 or 6 seconds. I had assumed it was satellite debris, but possibly it was a Persied! This was spectacular!
on Sep 8th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Donna,
That’s why I made this site. My goal is to share with others one of nature’s awesome occurrences! Keep your head up!
- Meteor Mark
on Sep 9th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
I was so pleases to find you site. I walked into my backyard tonight, looked up and saw a wonderful meteor. I had no idea a shower was due. I’ll keep looking and thanks for your work.
on Sep 11th, 2009 at 5:55 am
September 11, 2009 @ 5:35 am Eastern time – I was out for a morning run in my neighborhood near Louisville, KY, when I saw the largest meteor I have ever seen. It was breathtaking. The glow made it appear about 1/2 the size of the moon and there was a trail of embers following behind. It gave me a bit of an adrenaline rush it was so fantastic.
on Sep 11th, 2009 at 6:02 am
Jeff,
Sounds awesome. The glowing embers are called “persistent trains” and what you saw is called a fireball, they’re pretty rare. It sounds awesome, so consider yourself lucky!
Thanks for sharing.
- Meteor Mark
on Sep 12th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Was in Seattle on 09-12-09. At just about 8pm there was a bright streak across the sky. It broke apart a bit and continued even brighter. It went from East to West across the sky. The Sky in the West was still very bright even though the sun had gone down. Every streak I saw in the night sky before this would never have been visible in such a bright blue sky. It was amazing. A friend pointed it out and I had time to turn and look. It had a long tail and was in the North Sky probably heading towards if not over the Cascade Mountains. When it broke up a bit the smaller pieces died quickly falling away but in the same flight path. The falling pieces snuffed out in an instant 1/16 of a second maybe. It was bright white like an welder when it melts metal. A few other pedestrians near us commented on it. None of us had ever seen a light that close, lasting that long, or that bright. It looked more like a sattelight breaking up. It probably seemed that way to me as the only streaks I saw before were very late at night, brief, and faint. This was amazing. Out of 4 or 5 of us we had never seen anything like it. I think I’ll look up more often Was this an isolated thing or if Im on the look out would I see this type of thing again? It seemed like it lasted about 4 seconds. That is a really long time for this novice. Usually I’d see something for 1/8 to 1/16 of a second. It scared my friend. It scared me too. It was like watching something in a movie. He actually had time to tell me to look, I looked, and he told me how scared it made him feel before it vanished. Do they all break up a bit and get even brighter??
on Sep 13th, 2009 at 12:23 am
David,
What you saw was very rare and is called a Fireball. When they break apart they are then called Bolides. You may want to check out the meteor glossary here on MeteorBlog.com These type of events are very hard to predict if even possible at all. Even with all of the technology available, meteor viewing is one of the most difficult events for scientists to predict and has baffled us for ages. When it comes to colors and brightness you may want to search for “colors” in the upper right hand corner, there is an interesting read there too.
These type of events are not the norm, however there are millions of meteoroids hitting our Earth’s atmosphere everyday. Some go reported and some don’t either because no one sees them or they are too small to see. Thanks for sharing your story and bookmark the site. During meteor showers, you may have a chance to see more like this, but for the most part what you saw may be a once in a lifetime event and truly spectacular.
Keep your head up!
- Meteor Mark
on Sep 13th, 2009 at 1:43 am
we started seeing something in the sky at sep 12 @ 9pm then a second one 20 mins later but there were moving a lot slower then the video sept 13 early am then another at 10:30 pm then one at 12:20 am and I have been seeing in my back yard watching whatever it is fall out of the sky but I do have to say the first moved very slow but the last moved like a normal meter falling a lot faster so what was the first to we saw and it was not a fire ball and it did not have a tail behind it, it was the weirdest thing I ever saw it was almost moved like a UFO no joke for real and I was not the only that saw it there was a couple of us in the field watching it move across the sky and no it was not a plane this was up to high it had no flickering or blinking lights on it like a plane it was a solid round light but moved to slow to be falling we all swore it was a UFO
on Sep 13th, 2009 at 2:07 am
Laurel,
Thanks for the comment and keep your head up.
- Meteor Mark
on Sep 13th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Thanks for posting the video clip. That is exactly what we saw on Sep 12 here in Seattle. The only small difference was that it has a tiny break up at one point. But the brightness, length of time, and light sky were the same. Your videos tail was a little bit longer. Cant wait to show this clip to my friend that was there. I have a deck up stairs and cant wait to go up there tonight and look at everything there is to see!
I really appreciate your response. That was so unexpected. I am also looking forward to checking out the site so I know what Im looking at up there.
on Sep 21st, 2009 at 12:16 am
At about 12:45 a.m. on September 19 2009 a very large, very bright white light flew right in front of my car into a field. I saw something bright approaching from my left and then directly in front of me. It was much brighter than the moon. It seemed about 10 or 15 times the size of a basketball. This occurred in Norfolk/Millis, MA. Do you suppose this was a fireball? It was awesome to see so close up. What would have happened if it actually hit the car?
on Sep 21st, 2009 at 12:20 am
I forgot to mention that earlier in the evening, my friend and I were on Route 1A in Attleboro, MA, about 9 p.m. We both saw a very wierd looking round light that seemed low in the sky. We both thought it was a light from a small airplane shining through the clouds. But it didn’t appear to be moving. Do you know what that might have been?
on Sep 21st, 2009 at 5:57 am
M,
I have no idea what it was from your brief description. If it hit your car you certainly wouldn’t be typing this comment on this blog. You might have found yourself on the cover of some famous newspaper, magazine or tabloid. To answer your second question, that was probably the planet Jupiter which would have most likely been in your southern sky within the constellation Capricornus.
Keep your head up!
- Meteor Mark