The chart above presents the sky as seen from Southern California at 10:20 Universal Time on May 15, 2022. The 99% illuminated moon lies in western Libra, 22 degrees above the southwestern horizon while the expected radiant (dark circle) lies 70 degrees high in the northwestern sky. Chart courtesy Southern Star Systems

On the morning of May 15, 2022, the Earth is expected to pass though a debris field created by the Apollo asteroid known as 2006GY2. This object is actually a double minor planet with the main body estimated at 400 meters and the secondary satellite at 80m. While the density of debris field is unknown, the fact that this object is a double minor planet may provide a dense stream of debris.

The time of closest approach is at 10:20 UT on May 15th. This timing is ideal for the southwestern USA and Mexico. Unfortunately the moon is only one day from full and any faint meteors will most likely be obscured by the intense moonlight. If your sky is clear and transparent, we encourage you to view the sky near this time to try and confirm any activity. Visual observations are accepted by the International Meteor Organization. Simply register (it’s free) or log in at www.imo.net and enter your data on their visual meteor observing form. We ask for sessions of at least an hour long due to the fact that the prediction may be off from what is quoted here.

The radiant is expected to be located northwestern Hercules, 3 degrees east of the 4th magnitude star known as tau Herculis. Note that this outburst has no relation with the tau Herculids (TAU) which are associated with comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 and may occur on the night of May 30/31. The estimated entry velocity is 36km/sec., which is of medium speed and similar to that of the Geminid meteors.

This is the first of three possible meteor outbursts in the month of May. We will review the others as we approach the date of expected maximum!

References:

https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006CBET..534….1B/abstract Accessed 9 May 2022

2022 IMO Meteor Shower Calendar; by Jürgen Rendtel, Page 6

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4 comments

  • Loud, shaking single boom over southern Burlington and eastern Camden County NJ around 0615 local time. Sounded like from east.

    Reply to Patrick Doyle
  • Viewing the blood moon at approximately 10:20 pm I turned to vie the stars toward the north. I spotted a trail of what looked liked small stars! It traveled west to east then disappeared!
    Not sure what it was so I googled comets, and came across this feed!

    Reply to Linda
  • Dear Robert!
    Some increase in meteor signal activity occurred on May 15 between 10.25-11.25 LT (07.25-08.25 UT), about twice as much as on May 14 and 16 at about this time. I regularly listen to the radio air on the 88.6 MHz frequency.

    Best regards, I.Sergey

    Reply to Ivan

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