Greetings again all,

Well, for the last three mornings, fellow ACACer Brenda Branchett and I have been witness and privy to a very unexpected treat in the pre-dawn sky! We were out to monitor a relatively obscure and little known minor meteor shower called the September epsilon Perseids (SPEs), a radiant that has been known to flash some unusual outbursts in recent years and it certainly appears they may have had one this year as well!

Brenda led the way on the morning of Sept. 7/8 catching 15 SPEs in an hour from her home in Deltona. I had been out earlier in the evening trying to observe from Matanzas Inlet, but was driven away by the same relentless swarms of “no-see-um” gnats that plagued us last month during our Perseid watches. They were much worse this month! It must be a late summer seasonal thing down there. I relocated the last two mornings to other sites.

On Sept 8/9 morning, I went back to Butler Beach near ACAC member Lyle Guzman’s home where we have had ACAC star parties and had an hour and a half of comfortable observing (no gnats) next to the ocean and confirmed Brenda’s impression of the SPE’s activity level from the previous morning. I even caught glimpse a -4 SPE fireball low in the east out over the ocean while walking out to the beach! Brenda continued her good results for them also. We compared notes and impressions by cell phone while observing.

Then this morning, Sept. 9/10, I re-ventured out to the Hastings, Florida area (Deep Creek Conservation Area) potato fields and enjoyed two glorious hours of fog-free, gnat-free and mostly mosquito-free observing. Both Brenda, down in Deltona, Florida and me at Hastings, once again saw very impressive SPE activity indeed!

Here’s Brenda’s data from recent mornings:

Date: September 7/8, 2016

Observer: Brenda Branchett, Location: Deltona, Florida

Sky conditions—4.5-5.0 mag visible/70 percent of sky visible

Time: 4-25-5:25 a.m.

Ep Perseids–15 ( Had one minus 1 and one minus 3, a couple of 1st and 0 mag, rest were 2nd or third.)

Sporadics — 6

Total — 21

Satellites– 2 ( One was a very slow moving)

Date — Friday, September 8/9, 2016

Observer: Brenda Branchett, Location: Deltona, Florida

Time: 4:30 – 5:15 a.m.

Sky conditions: 4.5 – 5.0 magnitude, 70 percent sky visible

E. Per — 6 ( Nothing brighter than 1st magnitude)

Sporadic — 8

Total –14

Date: Saturday, September 9/10, 2016

Observer: Brenda Branchett, Location: Deltona, Florida

Time: 4:30 – 5:30 a.m.

Sky conditions: 4.5 mag. A bit of haze, 60 percent sky visible

E. Per — 8 ( Nothing brighter than 1st magnitude)

Sporadics — 5

ANT — 1

Total — 14

And here is my data:

Observed for radiants:

SPE – September epsilon Perseids

ORI – Orionids

ATR Aries-Triangulids

ANT – Anthelions

September 8/9 2016, observer: Paul Jones, Location: Butler Beach, Florida (about three miles south of St. Augustine, Beach, Florida), Lat: 29.79 N, Long: 81.26 W., LM: 6.05, cloud interference 20%, Facing: east

0330 – 0500 EDT (0730 – 0900 UT), Teff: 1.5 hours, No breaks

7 SPE: -4, +1, +2, +3(3), +4

2 ANT: +1, +3

1 ORI: +3

16 SPO: -1, +1, +2(5), +3(7). +4(2)

26 total meteors

7 of the 26 meteors left trains, the -4 SPE train lasted five seconds on the sky and the -1 SPO train lasted three seconds on the sky.

September 9/10 2016, observer: Paul Jones, Location: Deep Creek Conservation Area, Hastings, Florida (about 15 miles SW of St. Augustine, Florida), Lat: 29.69 N, Long: 81.44 W., LM: 6.5, clear, Facing: east

0330 – 0430 EDT (0730 – 0830 UT), Teff: 1.0 hour, No breaks

6 SPE: 0, +3, +4(3), +5

2 ORI: +1, +4

1 ANT: +3

11 SPO: 0, +2, +3(6). +5(3)

20 total meteors

5 of the 20 meteors left trains, 2 SPEs, 1 ORI and 1 SPO.

0430 – 0530 EDT (0830 – 0930 UT), Teff: 1.0 hour, No Breaks

10 SPE: +1, +2(3), +3(4), +4, +5

2 ORI: 0, +3

1 ANT: +3

1 ATR: 0

14 SPO: 0, +1(3), +3(4). +4(4), +5(2)

28 total meteors

7 of the 28 meteors left trains, four SPEs, 1 ORI and 2 SPOs.

It was indeed quite a surprise to see all those SPEs and it was awesome to see where the CAMS Benelux folks were able to view and to confirm Brenda’s and my impressions of the SPEs. Teamwork is an awesome thing!

More to come, Paul J