(meteorobs) 2011 Orionid maximum from north Florida - WOW!

Paul Jones jonesp0854 at gmail.com
Sat Oct 22 09:28:51 EDT 2011


Greetings again all,
      I just had an amazing two hour pre-dawn Orionid max watch this morning
from the roof of my house here in St. Augustine.  I had Orionid rates near
50 an hour just before dawn!  I decided to get up on the roof to reduce tree
obstruction and it made a world of difference!  The Orionids were stronger
than I have ever, ever seen them. What a stunning performance from them!
The moon didn't bother me or them a bit.
     Most of the Orionids were short and faint, but I did catch one -2 and
one -1 Orionid within about five minutes of each other during that amazing
second hour.   Here's a quick summary of my two hours:

Oct 21/22, 2011

0815 - 0915 UT (0415-0515 EDT) L.M. 6.0,  F1.0 Facing south

26 Orionids
1 epsilon Geminid
8 sporadics
35 total meteors

0915-1015 UT (0515 - 0615 EDT) L.M. 6.0, F1.0 Facing south

48 Orionids
5 Taurids
2 epsilon Geminids
2 Leo Minorids
13 aporadics
70 total meteors!!

The action was steady, fast and furious in that second hour.  Some minutes
had as many as 3 or 4 meteors in them - Orionids, Taurids and sporadics, all
criss-crossing the sky going every which way.  It was hard for me to keep
track of everything!  This morning's watch was by far the best meteor watch
I've had since the 2002 Leonid storm and one of my best ever.
The Orionids showed some tendency to spurt with perhaps 2 or 3 in one minute
sometimes, but at other times, they just kept a steady beat of short, faint
meteors coming.  I would estimate nearly half of the second hour's Orionids
I saw had trains, even the faint meteors!
At one point in the second hour, there was a small burst of almost point
meteors from the Orionids, all less than one degree in length and all within
about five degrees of the radiant. I had never seen anything quite like that
before, even during the recent Leonid storms!
The two Leo Minorids were both impressive, long pathed and bright.  The
Taurids were a cool, off-speed counterpoint to the speedy and short
Orionids.  What a mixed bag of meteors!  A couple of times, the Orionids
were so quick and short, I saw the train and not the meteor.  That was
something I remember from the 2002 Leonid storm so vivdly.
You betcha I'll be back out in the morning, this something special going on
and I don't want to miss a minute of it!  Hope others are getting to see
it!!  Full data coming later...

CLear skies and lots of Orionids to all, Paul in north Florida
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