Hello all!

I was fortunate enough to view a major, un-predicted outburst of Perseids (ZHR of 210 +/- 20) on the morning of August 14th from a dark sky site west of Ottawa.? It was a spectacular, very much un-anticipated display especially so far beyond the normal annual maximum!? In just 3 hours (2am-5am Eastern time), under 6.7 skies, I saw 395 meteors.? The best hour alone had 163 Perseids and the best 5 minute period had 22 Perseids… There were even a few instances of near simultaneous meteors that reminded me of the 2001 Leonids.? This made it the finest Perseids display that I’ve seen in my 30 years of meteor observing!? My early results have been published in a CBET Telegram by Peter Jenniskens (forwarded below)!? There is an article published on MeteorNews as well.

A more detailed report to come soon!? I did manage to quickly setup a camera/tripod to catch what I could of it : )

Clear skies,

Pierre

????????????????????????????????????????????????? Electronic Telegram No. 5016
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
Mailing address:? Hoffman Lab 209; Harvard University;
??
e-mail:? cbatiau@... (alternate cbat@...)
URL
Prepared using the Tamkin Foundation Computer Network


PERSEID METEOR SHOWER OUTBURST 2021
???? P. Jenniskens, SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center, reports that
CAMS video-based meteoroid orbit survey networks in the United States detected
an outburst of Perseids between 6h and 11h UT on Aug.? This outburst was not
anticipted from known 109P/Swift-Tuttle dust trail encounters.? Early results
from the new CAMS Texas network (coordinated by W. Cooney and including D.
Selle, F. Cyrway, and J. Brewer) in mostly clear skies and the CAMS
California network (P. Jenniskens, D. Samuels, J. Albers, E. Egland, B.
Grigsby, and J. Wray) in clear skies show an activity profile with peak
Zenith Hourly Rate (ZHR) 130 +/- 20 meteors/hr on top of normal ZHR = 40
Perseids/hr in average annual activity (cf. URL for
date of August 14).? The full-width-at-half-maximum of the fitted Lorentzian
profile is 0.08 +/- 0.01 degrees solar longitude.? The peak occurred at solar
longitude 141.474 +/- 0.005 degrees (equinox J2000.0), corresponding to 8h.2
UT.? The combined magnitude distribution index was 3.59 +/- 0.36, compared to
2.94 +/- 0.04 for the annual component in other years at this solar longitude.
???? P. Martin, visually observing from Ottawa, Canada, reports "multiple
Perseids per minute with many bursts, sometimes 3-4 in a second", starting
at 6h UT; he observed until 9h UT under clear skies with limiting stellar
magnitude 6.7.? From his 5-minute interval counts, K. Miskotte of the Dutch
Meteor Society calculated a peak ZHR of 210 +/- 20 meteors/hr at solar
longitude 141.474 +/- 0.005 deg.
???? This also confirms radio forward-scatter meteor observations posted by
H. Ogawa of the International Project for Radio Meteor Observation (cf. URL
), in which 49 observers in
fourteen countries saw the detection count increase above normal levels
after 6h.4 UT (141.40 deg solar longitude) and peak at about 8h.8 UT (141.49
deg) at a level three times the Perseid peak level, before declining to normal
levels at 12h.5 UT (141.65 deg solar longitude).? Combined ZHRs peaked around
ZHR = 210 meteors/hr (cf. website URL
).


NOTE: These 'Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams' are sometimes
????? superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

???????????????????????? (C) Copyright 2021 CBAT
2021 August 14?????????????????? (CBET 5016)????????????? Daniel W. E. Green

Pierre,

Thank you for sharing! That’s an exciting discovery, it must have been a lot of fun to witness. It makes me feel inspired.

-Adam

On Sun, Aug 15, 2021 at 11:16 PM Pierre Martin <pmartin@...> wrote:

Hello all!

I was fortunate enough to view a major, un-predicted outburst of Perseids (ZHR of 210 +/- 20) on the morning of August 14th from a dark sky site west of Ottawa.? It was a spectacular, very much un-anticipated display especially so far beyond the normal annual maximum!? In just 3 hours (2am-5am Eastern time), under 6.7 skies, I saw 395 meteors.? The best hour alone had 163 Perseids and the best 5 minute period had 22 Perseids… There were even a few instances of near simultaneous meteors that reminded me of the 2001 Leonids.? This made it the finest Perseids display that I’ve seen in my 30 years of meteor observing!? My early results have been published in a CBET Telegram by Peter Jenniskens (forwarded below)!? There is an article published on MeteorNews as well.

A more detailed report to come soon!? I did manage to quickly setup a camera/tripod to catch what I could of it : )

Clear skies,

Pierre

????????????????????????????????????????????????? Electronic Telegram No. 5016
Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
Mailing address:? Hoffman Lab 209; Harvard University;
??
e-mail:? cbatiau@... (alternate cbat@...)
URL
Prepared using the Tamkin Foundation Computer Network


PERSEID METEOR SHOWER OUTBURST 2021
???? P. Jenniskens, SETI Institute and NASA Ames Research Center, reports that
CAMS video-based meteoroid orbit survey networks in the United States detected
an outburst of Perseids between 6h and 11h UT on Aug.? This outburst was not
anticipted from known 109P/Swift-Tuttle dust trail encounters.? Early results
from the new CAMS Texas network (coordinated by W. Cooney and including D.
Selle, F. Cyrway, and J. Brewer) in mostly clear skies and the CAMS
California network (P. Jenniskens, D. Samuels, J. Albers, E. Egland, B.
Grigsby, and J. Wray) in clear skies show an activity profile with peak
Zenith Hourly Rate (ZHR) 130 +/- 20 meteors/hr on top of normal ZHR = 40
Perseids/hr in average annual activity (cf. URL for
date of August 14).? The full-width-at-half-maximum of the fitted Lorentzian
profile is 0.08 +/- 0.01 degrees solar longitude.? The peak occurred at solar
longitude 141.474 +/- 0.005 degrees (equinox J2000.0), corresponding to 8h.2
UT.? The combined magnitude distribution index was 3.59 +/- 0.36, compared to
2.94 +/- 0.04 for the annual component in other years at this solar longitude.
???? P. Martin, visually observing from Ottawa, Canada, reports "multiple
Perseids per minute with many bursts, sometimes 3-4 in a second", starting
at 6h UT; he observed until 9h UT under clear skies with limiting stellar
magnitude 6.7.? From his 5-minute interval counts, K. Miskotte of the Dutch
Meteor Society calculated a peak ZHR of 210 +/- 20 meteors/hr at solar
longitude 141.474 +/- 0.005 deg.
???? This also confirms radio forward-scatter meteor observations posted by
H. Ogawa of the International Project for Radio Meteor Observation (cf. URL
), in which 49 observers in
fourteen countries saw the detection count increase above normal levels
after 6h.4 UT (141.40 deg solar longitude) and peak at about 8h.8 UT (141.49
deg) at a level three times the Perseid peak level, before declining to normal
levels at 12h.5 UT (141.65 deg solar longitude).? Combined ZHRs peaked around
ZHR = 210 meteors/hr (cf. website URL
).


NOTE: These 'Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams' are sometimes
????? superseded by text appearing later in the printed IAU Circulars.

???????????????????????? (C) Copyright 2021 CBAT
2021 August 14?????????????????? (CBET 5016)????????????? Daniel W. E. Green