2018 September Epsilon Perseids Peak Sunday, Sept. 9

Summary: The 2018 September Epsilon Perseids peak Sunday night, Sept. 9, as a monthlong minor annual meteor shower.

Outbursts of the September Epsilon Perseids occurred in 2008 and in 2013. Calculations by Nippon Meteor Society’s Mikiya Sato suggest a possible outburst in 2018: UK Meteor Network @UKMeteorNetwork viaTwitter Sept. 11, 2013

The 2018 September Epsilon Perseids peak Sunday night, Sept. 9, as a monthlong minor annual meteor shower that the International Meteor Organization (IMO) describes as a “primarily northern-hemisphere shower.”

NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, north central Alabama, places peak time Sunday, Sept. 9, 2018, at 16:44 Coordinated Universal Time (12:44 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time). Dr. Jürgen Rendtel of northeastern Germany’s Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) starts the Sept. 9 maximum at 16:00 UTC (12 p.m. EDT). He also notes that meteor specialist Mikiya Sato has calculated a possible outburst, or intense shower, at 19:12 UTC (3:12 p.m. EDT) for the 2018 maximum date.

The International Meteor Organization’s 2018 Meteor Shower Calendar suggests good viewing for observers at mid-northern latitudes as of 22:00 or 23:00 UTC (6 to 7 p.m. EDT). The United Kingdom’s Society for Popular Astronomy’s sky chart orients UK observers toward September Epsilon Perseid tracking in the east-northeastern sky as of “the middle of the night” and “thereafter all night.”

A meteor shower’s peak often benefits adjacent dates with increased rates. Peter Jenniskens, senior research scientist at The Seti Institute and at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, identifies the September Epsilon Perseid meteor shower’s maximum as occurring annually from about Sept. 9 to Sept. 12.

The Epsilon Perseid meteor shower’s annual display mostly occurs in September. The International Meteor Organization assigns annual activity dates of Sept. 5 to Sept. 21 to the Epsilon Perseids (ε-Perseids). Robert Lunsford, The American Meteor Society’s Weekly Meteor Activity Outlook columnist, placed activity dates at Sunday, Sept. 3, to Tuesday, Oct. 3, for 2017 and at Monday, Sept. 5, through Wednesday, Sept. 28, for 2016. The American Meteor Society (AMS) gave activity dates of Tuesday, Sept. 5, to Thursday, Sept. 28, for the September Epsilon Perseids in the society’s 2017 Meteor Shower List.

The September Epsilon Perseid (SPE) shower produces bright meteors that move swiftly across the sky. SPE meteors attain entry velocities of around 64 kilometers per second (around 40 miles per second).

Zenithal hourly rate (ZHR) indicates ideal observable rates under optimal radiant and sky conditions. The American Meteor Society and The International Meteor Organization calculate a zenithal hourly rate of five shower members per hour for the September Epsilon Perseids. Apart from the shower’s peak date, a rate of one or less per hour is expected.

The September Epsilon Perseid meteor shower’s peak occurs under ideal lunar conditions. Retired NASA astrophysicist Fred Espenak clocks the moon as turning new at 18:01 UTC (2:01 p.m. EDT) Sunday, Sept. 9. New moon invisibility continues into Monday, Sept. 10.

The dates surrounding the September Epsilon Perseid meteor shower’s peak also are conducive for meteor spotting. The waning crescent phase that precedes the peak date’s new moon dwindles from 8 percent surface visibility of the lunar disk Friday, Sept. 7, down to 3 percent surface visibility Saturday, Sept. 8. The waxing crescent phase that succeeds Sunday and Monday’s new moon offers a slivery surface visibility of only 5 percent for Tuesday, Sept. 11, and 11 percent for Wednesday, Sept. 12.

The September Epsilon Perseid meteor shower’s name reflects an apparent point of origin, known as the shower’s radiant, in Perseus the Hero constellation. A backward tracing of the shower’s meteors in the sky ends near Epsilon Persei (ε Persei; Epsilon Per, ε Per) in the Hero’s constellation.

A meteor shower’s radiant drifts daily about one degree eastward. Radiant diurnal drift parallels Earth’s orbital progression of about one degree per day around the sun.

The September Epsilon Perseid meteor shower’s peak date finds the radiant near Algol (Beta Persei, β Persei; Beta Per, β Per). The three-star system is the second brightest star in Perseus the Hero constellation.

The takeaway for the 2018 September Epsilon Perseid meteor shower’s peak Sunday night, Sept. 9, is that the minor annual shower shoots bright, swift meteors across the Northern Hemisphere’s autumn skies.

September Epsilon Perseid meteor shower’s radiant is in Perseus the Hero constellation: screenshot at 00:01:04 of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s “What’s Up -- September 2016”: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory video, Sept. 1, 2016

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Outbursts of the September Epsilon Perseids occurred in 2008 and in 2013. Calculations by Nippon Meteor Society’s Mikiya Sato suggest a possible outburst in 2018: UK Meteor Network @UKMeteorNetwork viaTwitter Sept. 11, 2013, @ https://twitter.com/UKMeteorNetwork/status/377925122310410240

September Epsilon Perseid meteor shower’s radiant is in Perseus the Hero constellation: screenshot at 00:01:04 of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s “What’s Up -- September 2016”: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory video, Sept. 1, 2016, @ https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/details.php?id=1439

For further information:

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Available @ https://www.amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/2017-meteor-shower-list/

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Available @ https://www.imo.net/publications/wgn/

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Available @ http://www.alpo-astronomy.org/meteor/

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Available @ https://www.amsmeteors.org/2017/08/meteor-activity-outlook-for-september-2-8-2017/

Lunsford, Robert. “Meteor Activity Outlook for September 9-15, 2017.” American Meteor Society. Sept. 8, 2017.
Available @ https://www.amsmeteors.org/2017/09/meteor-activity-outlook-for-september-9-15-2017/

Lunsford, Robert. “Meteor Activity Outlook for September 16-22, 2017.” American Meteor Society. Sept. 15, 2017.
Available @ https://www.amsmeteors.org/2017/09/meteor-activity-outlook-for-september-16-22-2017/

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Rendtel, Jürgen; Esko Lyytinen; Sirko Molau; and Geert Barentsen. “Peculiar Activity of the September ε-Perseids on 2013 September 9.” WGN, vol. 42, no. 2 (April 2014): 40-47. Hove, Belgium: International Meteor Organization.
Available @ https://www.imo.net/publications/wgn/

Rendtel, Jürgen, ed. “September ε-Perseids (208 SPE).” International Meteor Organization 2016 Meteor Shower Calendar: 13.
Available @ https://www.imo.net/files/meteor-shower/cal2016.pdf

Rendtel, Jürgen, ed. “September ε-Perseids (208 SPE).” International Meteor Organization 2018 Meteor Shower Calendar: 13.
Available @ https://www.imo.net/files/meteor-shower/cal2018.pdf

UK Meteor Network @UKMeteorNetwork. “And here is September Perseid outburst from our station in Ireland, thanks Steve.” Twitter. Sept. 11, 2013.
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