(meteorobs) 2015 Orionid max obs from north Florida - Rocking rightalong!

Koen Miskotte k.miskotte at upcmail.nl
Fri Oct 23 12:41:46 EDT 2015


Hello Paul,
Great report on your observations Paul. It was nice to read it and it bring back some good memories.
In the Netherlands we have, unfortunately,  a tradional Orionid campaign. It means: clouds, clouds and clouds.
My last succesfull Orionid campaign dates back from 2011. During the 80’s and 90’s sometimes we had a area with high pressure above Scandinavia, so with a strong eastern flow dry air moved to our country and that gave sometimes day’s (or weeks) of clear weather. Since 2000, we see this situation occur much less frequently.
Instead, high-pressure areas are too far away over Russia or there is a blocked pattern of high pressure over Britain / Ireland resulting (sometimes) in weeks of cloudy weather. I do not know why this pattern is now more often over the last 10 years. I fear that it has something to do with global warming.

OK, so much for my whining about the weather. I hope you get another good night with the amazing Orionids!
Regards, koen

Hello again all,
       FINALLY, Mother Nature cut me some much needed slack this morning and I was able to put together a mostly awesome three and a half hour ORI meteor watch marathon session from the obscure and nameless Hastings, Florida potato field.  
       The clouds held off for me beautifully and the fog mostly stayed away as well.  The result was 3 1/2 hours of blissfully dark skies, wide horizons and a pretty impressive meteor count total.  I had an overall total of 149 meteors with 90 of them being ORIs between 0300 and 0630 EDT.  
       There were no fireballs for me this morning and a majority of all the meteors, especially the ORIs, were quite faint and short-pathed.  In lesser sky conditions, I would probably not have seen half of them.  But that's what makes the ORIs such a interesting and challenging shower to observe!
       The Taurid/Arietid complex was not quite so evident to me this morning although still producing, leaving me free to concentrate more on the ORIs and they were up to the task and then some!  My three full hourly ORI counts were: 19, 28 and 23, with the last hour before dawn coming in at a full 20 ORIs in just thirty minutes!  
       That third full hour (0500 -0600 EDT) was affected for about twenty minutes by a fog bank that moved in and dulled the skies just long enough to keep me below a 30/hour ORI total for the hour.  I'm pretty sure I would have easily topped it without that fog.  But then it rolled out again as quickly as it moved in right around 0600 and from there till twilight, the ORIs were everywhere!

Here's the data:

Oct. 22/23, 2015, Observer: Paul Jones, Location: 18 miles southwest of St. Augustine, Florida (5miles east of Hastings, Florida)

0300 - 0400 EDT (0700 - 0800 UT) LM: 6.8, Clear, Facing: south
19 ORI
3 STA
2 AAR
1 EGE
10 SPO
35 total meteors

0400 - 0500 EDT (0800 - 0900 UT) LM: 6.8, Clear, Facing: south
28 ORI
4 STA
1 EGE
1 LMI
11 SPO
45 total meteors

0500 - 0600 EDT (0900 - 1000 UT) LM: Var. - 5.8 - 6.8, 25% fog degradation, facing: south
23 ORI
3 STA
1 ETT
1 LMI
11 SPO
39 total meteors

0600 - 0630 (1000 - 1030 UT) LM: 6.8. clear, Facing: south (30 minutes)
20 ORI
1 EGE
1 LMI
8 SPO
30 total meteors

Mags: 

ORI: -1 (1), 0 (4), +1 (4), +2 (13), +3 (26), +4 (28), +5 (14)
STA: +1 (1), +2 (1), +3 (2), +4 (4), +5 (2)
AAR: +2 (1), +4 (1)
EGE: +1 (1), +3 (2)
LMI: 0 (1), +2 (1), +4 (1)
ETT: +2 (1)
SPO: +1 (3), +2 (4), +3 (11), +4 (15), +5 (7

Trains: 25% of the ORIs left visible trains, the number of train-leaving ORIs rose noticeably closer to twilight.

Colors: The brighter ORIs were mostly reddish in color, with several also showing yellow tints. 

I almost gave up and left during that third hour when the fog rolled in, slowing the meteor rate and increasing my fatigue level, but something told me to hang in there and I am glad I did.  When the fog finally rolled out, the ORI light switched on and they really cut loose that last half hour!  

It was awesome to see the planet grouping going on over in Leo this morning as well - an added bonus to the watch.  I'll try it again in the morning...

Clear skies, Paul J in north Florida 


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