The long-awaited maximum night of the Aurigids showed up with excellent weather. Some excitements were attached to whether the Aurigids would show a minor enhancement around 00:55 UT as predicted by Sato (2021). I had decided to do observations for 4 hours, starting at 21:45 UT. No Aurigids were seen the first hour with the radiant quite low in the sky, but a decent rate of 9 sporadic meteors were seen.

In the second hour 7 sporadic meteors were seen. The brightest of these meteors may in fact have been a late Kappa Cygnid. It appeared at 23:24 UT, when a -2-mag, yellow/red, slow-moving meteor glided from Cygnus into Lacerta. The first Aurigid of the night appeared at 23:30 UT, with a white, fast meteor in Aries.

After a short break, the real excitement started in the third hour as we got closer to the time of the predicted enhancement. At 00:03 the first Aurigid of the hour appeared with a +2-mag, yellow meteor in Ursa Minor. At 00:24 UT a +0-mag, yellow Aurigid with a smoke train, streaked from Cepheus into Cygnus. 4 minutes before the time of the predicted enhancement, another +0-mag Aurigid flared up between Auriga and Gemini. I hoped this could be the start of an enhancement, but no more Aurigids were seen the next 15 minutes. Sporadic rates the third hour came in at 11.

The last hour Aurigid rates stayed at the same level as the previous hour, with 3 meteors seen. The Aurigids seen were still on the brighter side, with a -1 and a +1-mag meteor as highlights. The sporadic rate came in at 8, mostly with faint meteors. An exiting night had come to an end. No outburst was seen, but I had the joy to observe 43 meteors under good sky conditions, among them some bright events that will be remembered for some time!

A total of 43 meteors were seen during 4 hours of observation. Among these were: 35 SPO, 1 ANT, and 7 AUR.

Observed showers:

Aurigids (206 AUR)

Antihelion source (ANT)

21:45 – 22:45. Teff: 1.00, F: 1.00, Lm: 6.23, RA: 0.00, DEC: +60

SPO: 9 meteors. +1, +2, +3(3), +4, +5(2), +6

AUR: 0 meteors.

ANT: 0 meteors.

22:45 – 23:45. Teff: 1.00, F: 1.00, Lm: 6.23, RA: 15, DEC: +60

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

AUR: 1 meteor. +3

ANT: 1 meteor. +2

23:45 – 00:55. Teff: 1.00 (10 minutes break), F: 1.00, Lm: 6.23, RA: 30, DEC: +60

SPO: 11 meteors. +0, +1, +3(3), +4(4), +5(2)

AUR: 3 meteors. +0(2), +2

ANT: 0 meteors.

00:55 -01:55. Teff: 1.00, F: 1.00, Lm: 6.15, RA: 30, DEC: +60

SPO: 8 meteors. +1, +3, +4(4), +5, +6

AUR: 3 meteors. -1, +1, +4

ANT: 0 meteors.