(meteorobs) 2015 Orionids max obs from north Florida - weather being a total pain!

Paul Jones jonesp0854 at gmail.com
Thu Oct 22 10:54:10 EDT 2015


Greetings again all,
    Well, last night proved to be yet another very challenging exercise in
weather dodging for me, but I did manage two productive albeit disjointed
hours of observing from two different locations around the county...;o).
    The coastal clouds were still doing their thing, so I ventured west to
my trusty Hastings, Florida potato field, arriving just before moonset
(around 2:00 a. m. EDT).  Once again, as last night, I was greeted by pitch
black, cloudless skies upon arrival and got right to business as soon as
the moon set.
     And also just as last night, Mother Nature allowed me only one amazing
hour of furious meteor activity before slamming the window shut on me once
again.  This time it was "pea soup" fog that rolled in in earnest and that
was, as they say, all she wrote for my potato field watch.
    Before that fog rolled in however, I had a stunning overall meteor
total of 40 between 2:00 and 3:00 a. m. EDT!  They were coming so fast, I
could barely keep up with them!  In addition to the Orionids, I was keen to
monitor the Taurid/Arietid complex of radiants that have been getting quite
a bit of discussion on Meteorobs this year.  And I was well rewarded!
    I had a total of 13 meteors radiate from the Taurus/Aries area during
that hour and did my best to separate them into individual radiants (eta
Taurids (ETT, southern Taurids (STA) and another one, the Autumn Arietids
(AAR) mentioned by veteran meteor watcher George Gliba.  I had good
activity from all three of them it turned out!  Data to follow...
    After the fog rolled in, I retreated back home and took a much-needed
nap hoping the fog would eventually dissipate and it finally did.  So I got
back up on my meteor roof and had a decent pre-dawn hour of Orionid
watching as well.

Here's the data:

Oct., 21/22, 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
16 ORI
3 ETT
5 STA
5 AAR
1 EGE
10 SPO
40 total meteors

Mags:
ORI: +2, (1), +3 (5), +4 (6), +5 (4)
ETT: +3 (2), +4 (1)
STA: 0 (1). +2 (1), +3 (2), +4 (1)
AAR: 0 (1), +3 (1), +4 (3)
EGE: +3 (1)
SPO: +2 (1), +3 (4), +4 (3), +5 (2)


Oct 21/22, 2015, Observer: Paul Jones, Location 5 miles southwest of St.
Augustine, Florida
0500 - 0600 EDT (0900 - 1000 UT), LM: 5.7, 25% fog degradation, Facing:
south
25 ORI
2 EGE
2 STA
3 LMI (Leo Minorids)
9 SPO
41 total meteors

Mags:
ORI: 0 (1), +1 (1), +2 (2), +3 (9), +4 (8), +5 (4)
EGE: +2 (1)
STA: +3 (2)
LMI: +1 (1). +2 (1), +3(1)
SPO: +1(2). +2 (1). +3 (5), +4 (2)

I found monitoring the Taurd/Arietid complex this morning to be quite
fascinating and hope to do some more of that over the next few nights.
Although the radiants are near to one another on the sky and meteor
characteristics are similar between them, many of these meteors I saw were
very short and close to the radiant complex, so I am fairly confident about
separating them out.  A big thanks to George Gliba for mentioning this
radiant!
Lots of way cool stuff going on up there in the meteor department
lately...;o).

More later, Paul J in north Florida
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