(meteorobs) Observation October 22/23 2015

Tue Oct 27 00:54:51 EDT 2015

Hello again,

I just love this time of the year for observing… the long cool nights, the bright winter constellations and strong meteor activity.  What more could one ask for?  The Orionids have long been one of my favourite showers.  Every time, I go out for them with low-ish expectations and I usually always end impressed at what I see (and sometimes very much so!).  The Orionids have an extended “peak activity” period running through a few nights, and this can be very helpful when the weather is poor (especially this time of the year in eastern Ontario).  A good clear sky finally materialized last Thursday night (October 22/23), and I was ready for a post-moonset morning session!

I left home just past midnight and made the two hour drive to the NFDSP (North Frontenac Dark Sky Platform) near Plevna.  This is a beautiful pristine area in a deep “dark sky bubble”.  The location is easy to access from the road, with a large parking area as well as a concrete base, complete with power outlets and chairs.  There’s also clean outhouses.  The horizons are wide-open to the south and light pollution glows are very distant.  Overhead, the Milky Way is gorgeous with stars down to mag 6.75, and faint objects such as M33 are visible to the eye.  The Gegenshein was visible between Aries and Cetus.  So, on my arrival, it was really a treat to look up at Orion and be able to see so many dim stars surrounding it.  Wow!!  I was enjoying a quiet moment before settling in for my formal meteor watch.  Suddenly,… SURPRISE!!! ... a -4 Orionid blasted across the shield of Orion!!  WOW!!!!!!!  The fireball flared bright blue, but what amazed me was the long duration train… it hung there for an amazing 90 seconds!!!  Eventually, the train dispersed and I lost sight of it.  Talk about a great start!!  It was time to settle into my chair, my sleeping bag, pull out a warm drink, put a radio with some favourite music to play in the background, and get busy recording.  I was seeing ORI’s flying left and right without even trying to see them.

I signed on at 3am EDT (7UT) and observed for 3 hours right up until morning dawn.  Overall activity was strong.  I saw a total of 98 meteors (58 ORI, 7 LMI, 6 STA, 2 ETT, 1 EGE and 24 sporadics).  The first hour was awesome with 43 meteors… It was so busy at times that I felt like I was observing the Perseids (and I even inadvertently called a few Orionids as “Perseids” in my tape recorder).  Orionids were coming on strong with 27 seen in that first hour alone.  The second hour had much lower overall rates though, including one lull of 13 minutes going by without a single meteor being seen.  With only 10 ORIs, I was thinking that perhaps the strong activity seen earlier was a fluke?  But luckily, the ORIs came back to life in the third and final hour of observing.  Many ORIs are of the “you blink and you miss” kind of meteors, so it really helps to stay alert and avoid any kind of distractions.  Many of them are dim and have short paths, so excellent sky conditions really help.

Highlights...

- At the very beginning of my watch... a spectacular Leo Minorid shot 30 degrees and reached mag -2.  It had a *****GORGEOUS***** golden colour and a very long trail that persisted a few seconds.  I shouted out loud at that one!  

- A pair of dim, fast meteors (an ORI and a SPO) occurring simultaneously perpendicular from each other, and separated by about 15 degrees… It was startling to see two meteors in a fraction of a second exactly at once!  

- Near the end of the night, a slow moving mag -1 sporadic earthgrazer just blew me away!  It went from west to east, over a ******50 degrees******* path lasting several seconds!!  It had a deep GOLDEN colour and a long glittering trail.  It was one that I won’t soon forget!!

- Really lovely grouping of planets rising in the east (Venus, Jupiter and Mars).  They were striking especially under such dark skies.  The Zodiacal Light was also really quite bright.  I took a few pictures:
https://pmartin.smugmug.com/Astronomy/20151023-Morning-Planets/i-NkpWKZR/A
https://pmartin.smugmug.com/Astronomy/20151023-Morning-Planets/i-PjvN7PS/A
before packing things up and grabbing a snooze.

October 22/23 2015, 07:00-10:25 UT (03:00-06:25 EDT)
Location: North Frontenac Dark Sky Platform (near Plevna), Ontario, Canada 
(Long: -76 deg 56’ 23"; Lat: 44 deg 55’ 04")

Observed showers:
Southern Taurids (STA) - 02:36 (039) +12
Eta Taurids (ETT) - 03:20 (050) +22
Orionids (ORI) - 06:12 (093) +16
Epsilon Geminids (EGE) - 06:48 (102) +27
Oct. Lyncids (OLY) - 07:20 (110) +43
Tau Cancrids (TCA) - 09:00 (135) +30
Leonis Minorids (LMI) - 10:24 (156) +38

Period 1: 07:00-08:00 UT; clear; 4/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.75; facing S50 deg; teff 1.00 hr
ORI: twenty-seven: +1(2); +2(7); +3(5); +4(6); +5(7)
STA: three: +1; +4; +5
LMI: two: -2; +4
ETT: one: +4
EGE: one: +4 
Sporadics: nine: +2; +3; +4(3); +5(4)
Total meteors: forty-three

Period 2: 08:00-09:01 UT; clear, 4/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.75; facing S50 deg; teff 1.01 hr
ORI: ten: +2; +3(2); +4(3); +5(4)
LMI: three: -3; +2; +4
Sporadics: four: +3; +4(3)
Total meteors: seventeen

Period 3: 09:07-10:25 UT; clear; 4/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.48; facing S50 deg; teff 1.11 hr (11 min dead time for break)
ORI: twenty-one: -1; 0; +2(3); +3(3); +4(8); +5(5)
STA: three: +1; +3(2)
LMI: two: +2; +5
ETT: one: +4
Sporadics: eleven: -1; +2(4); +3(4); +4(2)
Total meteors: thirty-eight

Notes: The NFDSP is really great now that the big issue of the green lights at the helicopter pad has been resolved.  However, this site is not without some other issues.  Unfortunately, there is a bright floodlight at the aerodrome that is very annoying.  There is no way to avoid it from the platform, and for this reason I avoided setting up on the platform.  Fortunately, this was easily solved by setting up in the parking lot and positioning myself so that the neighbouring house would block the light.  Another issue is a corridor of commercial jet traffic in the southern sky.  There was LOTS of passing jets late at night (and presumably early evening) - something that I found a bit distracting, and I could see it being a little challenging for wide field photography.  

Clear skies,

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario