A "Gentle Shower" from SW-3
Taken by Dr. J. Wayne Wooten on May 30, 2022 @
Airport Approach, Pensacola, Florida
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Details:
We had five Escambia Amateur Astronomers watch the Tau Herculid shower on Monday evening from 10 PM CDT (1:00 UT on May 31st) to midnight (3:00 UT). We spotted eight Tau Herculids in the two hours, four each hour, before clouds rolled in to put our count to a stop at midnight. The radiant above us near Arcturus stayed clear most of the time, and T=3 overhead, but all the shower meteors were fairly bright (-1 to +2), very short trains (2-5 degrees typically), and lay within 25 degrees of the radiant. I suspect a lot of fainter meteors were there, but because the debris was slow as showers go, only larger particles directed almost right at us from the radiant were intense enough under our limited sky conditions. The ones farther from the radiant were probably too faint, but might have been visible under darker skies. Still, Tom Reiderer, Sarah Coffman, Leslie Danks, Neli Aldama, and I all had at least two observers confirm the times, lengths, color, motion, and brightness of the eight shower meteors. One sporadic was also seen. It was disappointing that we did not get a real shower, but enlightening that we did confirm they are out there, and perhaps future prospects for this shower can only be looking up.
Photographer's website:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/80860174301/photos/?filter=albums
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