Viewing the 2020 September epsilon Perseids

Normally, the September epsilon Perseids meteor shower (SPE) produce a peak of around 5 meteors per hour at maximum. This year, with a 60 percent illuminated moon rising near 22:30 (10:30pm) local summer time, one could easily dismiss the probably of seeing anything extraordinary from this source. Yet interplanetary dust expert Jérémie Vaubaillon has brought to our attention that the Earth may pass through debris streams that were produced by an unknown source in 1375 and 1848. The timing of these passages occurs on September 9 near 9:55 universal time (4:55am CDT) for the 1848 stream and 13:32 universal time (11:55pm HST on Sept. 8) for the 1375 stream. These times favor North America for the first encounter and the eastern Pacific area for the second encounter as it will be daylight across the European continent. The density of these streams is unknown so predictions of meteor activity can only be a guess. The best advice is to expect nothing at all and hope for the best!

On the night of maximum activity, the radiant for the September epsilon Perseids lies at 03:12 (048) +40. This position is easy to locate in the sky as it lies only one degree southeast of the bright variable star known as Algol (beta Persei). Unfortunately, the bright half-moon will lie in the neighboring constellation of Taurus, not far from the SPE radiant. The best strategy would be to keep the moon out of your field of view yet still trying to include Algol to help determine the shower association of any meteors seen. Trying to view activity prior to moon rise would most likely yield little success as the radiant only achieves an altitude of 30 degrees 45 minutes after moon rise.

If your skies are clear and transparent on the night of September 8/9, we highly recommend that you try to verify any activity rom this source. Visual observing forms are available on the AMS website. You may send these to Robert Lunsford at: lunro.imo.usa@cox.net. The International Meteor Organization has a visual form available to everyone on their website (free registration required). Your observations will help us advance our knowledge of these obscure meteor showers!

Tags: September Epsilon Perseids

Robert Lunsford

Bob has been interested in the stars as far back as he can recall His first experience with meteors was a biggie, the 1966 Leonid shower. In 1980, a major awaking occurred. He received a sample copy of Meteor News. He was amazed to learn there was a group actually devoted strictly to meteor observing! He joined the group also started to view some of the minor showers list among the pages of Meteor News. Lastly, he was contracted by Springer Publishing in 2007 to write a book on observing meteors. The book is now available and hopefully will be a useful guide to all interested in the enjoyable field of meteor observing.