(meteorobs) Abbreviated 2015 Orionid max obs from north Florida - best of times/worst of times

Paul Jones jonesp0854 at gmail.com
Wed Oct 21 10:24:19 EDT 2015


Greetings again all,
    Well, last night was one of those astronomical roller coaster rides of
epic proportions (talk about Space Mountain...;o) for yours truly - your
intrepid meteor observer, in trying to see the first night of the three
2015 Orionid maximum nights.
    The incessant coastal clouds we've been having drove me inland to
search for clear skies and I initially found them and then some in a potato
field about five miles east of Hastings, Florida. There the clouds held off
just long enough for me to get in one magnificent hour of meteor watching
before they found me again...:o(.
    From 2:00 to 3:00 a.m. EDT in that obscure field in the middle of
nowhere, I had 27 total meteors with 15 Orionids under a pitch black, wide
horizon sky!  I estimated the Limiting Magnitude as an easy 6.8 with
virtually zero light pollution to speak of.  It was awesome!!
   During that memorable hour, I had a -1 Ori, a zero magnitude Ori, a -2
STA and a -1 gamma Piscid!  Man, was I stoked...  But then, the clouds
found me.
   For the next two and a half hours after that, I impatiently combined
intermixed abbreviated watches through holes in the clouds with spotty
showers and getting rained on...  All the time fretting over what was going
on up there on the other side of those blasted clouds!
   Through the subsequent occasional sucker holes, I had a -2 ORI and at
one point, an amazing burst of over 6 ORIs all hitting within about 4
minutes of each other in between and around the clouds!
   I estimated the Orionids were at an easy 30 an hour rate maybe more with
a fair amount of bright ones thrown in.  This night was sort of one of
those big ones that mostly got away, I'm afraid.

    Here's the meteor totals (mags later) for my one quality observing hour:

Oct. 20/21, 2015, Observer: Paul Jones, Location: 18 miles southwest of St.
Augustine, Florida (5 miles east of Hastings, Florida),
2:00 - 3:00 EDT (0600 - 0700 UT) LM: 6.8, Clear, Facing: south
15 ORI
2   STA
1   EGE
1  GPS
8 SPO
27 total meteors

Looks like even more of the same weather-wise around here tonight, no idea
what my observing strategy will be, but I'll try to come up with
something as the 2015 Orionids definitely seem to be on their game for
sure!!

More later, Paul
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