(meteorobs) Orionids from Belgium (VANMC)

Michel Vandeputte michelvandeputte at hotmail.com
Mon Oct 23 14:08:23 EDT 2006


Hi,

My impressions about a remarkable Orionid return! At 22 local time, it still was raining very hard during the passage of a cold front. After this system I expected the arrival of some crystal clear skies before the arrival of another depression from the Atlantic Ocean. Autumn definitely started for the Low Countries!  A squall line with heavy thunderstorms and rain showers stayed in the neighbourhood of the North see (that's around 100 km in western direction from my place in the Flemish hills). Still I could see the lightning from these showers. Wind was blowing with gusts from south western directions.  After 23 local time, the skies became very clear and I started observing at 23.35 local time. Limited magnitude reached 6.6 almost all night long. The show started after 4 minutes with a magnitude +2 earth grazer.  I enjoyed more spectacular earth grazing meteors between 23.30-00.30 local time, including a +1 Orionid with 3 seconds persistent trail in Cetus. The radiant rose.more shooting stars came from the constellation of Orion. Hourly Orionid counts increased.from 10 with a lower radiant altitude till 47 shower members between 01.15-02.15 UT, even good for a ZHR +50! 

There was definitely something going on with this shower. Sometimes I saw 2 meteors at once, even 3 in one minute! Besides, there were some very bright shower members, reaching a marvellous magnitude of  -6, two times -4 and a couple of -2! Sadly, during the second half of the night, I had to deal with the formation of some stratocumuli clouds, overcastting the skies for a while. Even through some tiny holes, I could observe more bright Orionids. Some of these swift Orionids left a train witch lasted 4-5 seconds long. 59 from the 150 official recorded Orionids left such a persistent train: that's good for 39%.  Incredible! In grand total; I observed 7 hours between 21.35UT and 04.35 UT resulting in 282 meteors (199 Orionids). 5.07 hours are suitable for data reduction. Beneath this text; you can enjoy my meteor report from this remarkable night, so far the best one in 2006..I hope that this event will be soon explained and which dynamics are responsible for this astonishing Orionid return. 

 

I also have data from 14-15, 15-16 and 16-17 October. These reports are still in progress.

 

Long trains,

 

Michel.         



VISUAL OBSERVING FORM - SUMMARY REPORT 

Night: October 21 - October 22 
Observer: Michel Vandeputte    IMO code: VANMC
Place: Ellezelles (50.43 N - 3.38 E -alt 120m)
Period: 21:35-04:03 UT
Method: counting - tape recorder. 

Active showers: 

Orionids (alfa: 95° / delta +16°)
Northern Taurids (alfa 39° / delta 18°)
Southern Taurids (alfa 41° / delta 12°)
Leo Minorids (alfa 160° / delta 38°)
Epsilon Geminids (alfa 106°/ delta 27°)

Interval analyse 

period (UT)     Teff        F        Lm              ORI    NTA    STA    LMI    SPOR   

P1    21:35-22:05    0.50    1.00    6.60        5        2        0        0        7
P2    22:05-22.35    0.50    1.00    6.60        5        0        0        0        7
P3    22.35-23.05    0.50    1.00    6.60        15      0        0        0        7
P4    23.05-23.35    0.50    1.00    6.60        8        0        0        0       1
P5    23.35-00.05    0.50    1.00    6.60        14      0        2        0        5
P6    00.05-00.35    0.50    1.00    6.60        17      0        0        0        4
P7    00.35-00.50    0.25    1.00    6.60        9        0        2        0        4
P8    01.15-01.45    0.50    1.00    6.60        19      1        0        0        5
P9    01.45-02.15    0.50    1.00    6.60        28      1        1        0        5
P10  02.15-02.22    0.12    1.00    6.60        2        0        0        0        2
P11  03.21-04.03    0.70    1.00    6.50        28      0        0        1        9

        21:35-04.03    5.07                            150    4        5        1        56 = 216 meteors.

          

Magnitude distributions Orionids (interval)

P1    +1(1)+2(2)+4(2) N 5 Mean 2.60  N~: 4
P2    -1(1)+2(2)+3(1)+4(1) N 5 Mean 2.00  N~: 3
P3    -1(1)+1(1)+2(2)+3(5)+4(4)+5(2) N 15 Mean 3.00  N~: 7
P4    +2(1)+3(2)+4(4)+5(1) N 8 Mean 3.62  N~: 1
P5    -4(1)+0(1)+1(1)+2(3)+3(3)+4(5) N 14 Mean 2.29 N~: 8
P6    +0(2)+2(4)+3(6)+4(3)+5(2) N 17 Mean 2.82  N~: 7
P7    +1(1)+2(3)+3(3)+4(1)+5(1) N 9 Mean 2.78  N~: 4
P8    -2(2)+0(2)+1(5)+2(2)+3(4)+4(4) N 19 Mean 1.74  N~: 9
P9    -4(1)+0(2)+2(4)+3(8)+4(8)+5(5) N 28 Mean 3.04  N~: 8
P10  +3(1)+4(1) N 2 Mean 3.50
P11  -6(1)+2(8)+3(9)+4(5)+5(5) N 28 Mean 3.14  N~: 8

grand total: 

ORI    -6(1)-4(2)-2(2)-1(2)+0(5)+1(6)+2(34)+3(40)+4(38)+5(20) N 150 Mean 2.88  N~: 59

Other shower MD:

NTA    +2(1)+3(2)+4(1) N 4 Mean 3.00
STA    +3(2)+4(3) N 5 Mean 3.60
LMI     +2(1) N 1 Mean 2.00
SPOR +2(9)+3(10)+4(30)+5(7) N 56 Mean 3.62 N~: 3 





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