(meteorobs) Abbreviated 2015 Orionid max...

[Paul Jones]

Good to hear from you Norman and I hope you're right about the ORIs.  I
plan to check it out this year.  I don't think I've ever watched them for
five straight nights before but I do know that they have quite a plateau
maximum for sure.  Our weather here in north Florida has been very
uncooperative this year so far for the ORIs, but I did manage to get in two
disjoined hours of watching this morning (Oct 21/22) and had 25 ORIs in the
last hour before dawn with fog degradation.  The majority of them were
quite faint, for sure.  More complete report to follow.

Sorry to hear of the perception problems, I worry about that quite often
myself.  So far anyway, I seem to have kept at least enough of mine to be
able to hang in there which amazes me with all the computer-related work
I've done.  So far anyway, it has been only my close-up vision that has
been hammered and my glasses correct that.  I don't need or use them at all
when I am out meteor watching.  They have horrible spherical aberration and
double most of the star images anyway...;o).  They are totally useless for
meteor watching.

Clear skies, Paul J in north Florida

On Thu, Oct 22, 2015 at 4:46 AM, Norman W McLeod III <nmcleod at coconet.com>
wrote:

> On 10/21/2015 10:24 AM, Paul Jones wrote:
>
> 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.
>
>
> Only three?  In my active times I found the Orionid maximum lasting for
> five nights.  Just as strong on the morning of October 25 as October 21.
> On October 26 it would be cut in half.
>
> My last attempt at meteor observing was 3 years ago.  I went out east of
> town to somebody's semi dark-sky house location for the 2012 Orionids.  A
> decent sky with LM 6.5.  I still saw the brightest Messier open clusters as
> resolved naked-eye.  The session October 21 was to cover 3 hours before
> dawn.  But I had to wait half an hour before seeing the first meteor!  The
> date was a memorable night in numerous prior years, so it was disconcerting
> to see almost nothing.  I quit after an hour and a half with only 12
> meteors, mostly Orionids and absent all of the faint ones.  That night
> confirmed that my perception for meteors is largely gone.  So it is no
> longer worthwhile for me to pursue meteor observing.
>
> The first hint of a problem came for the 2012 Perseids from the same
> location.  In just over an hour starting around 2 A.M. I saw only 9
> Perseids, and almost nothing fainter than magnitude 2.  So I quit earlier
> than planned that night also.
>
> Speaking of faint meteors, I found the Delta Aquarids to be tied with the
> Orionids for the rank of faintest shower.  Around 20 years ago I received a
> call from the local newspaper.  Somebody got wind of a meteor shower due at
> the end of July, so he wanted to stump up a story about the usual fiery
> show of meteors but at an unusual time.  I recommended that he cancel any
> such story.  People in town would be lucky to see anything at all.
>
> Norman
>
>
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