NASA’s official lunar meteor observatories are located in Alabama and Georgia. Both were off-line on August 9th, so the NASA team didn’t see how many Perseids were hitting the Moon that night.

“This shows how amateur astronomers can contribute to our research,” points out Suggs. “We can’t observe the Moon 24-7 from our corner of the USA. Clouds, sunlight, the phase of the Moon—all these factors limit our opportunities. A global network of amateur astronomers monitoring the Moon could, however, approach full coverage.”

(via science@nasa)