(meteorobs) Observation October 22/23 2015

Paul Jones jonesp0854 at gmail.com
Tue Oct 27 05:20:07 EDT 2015


AWESOME job indeed, Pierre (as always)...;o)!  Thank you for sharing your
superb and spot-on impressions with us.  I totally second your thoughts,
emotions and especially your results on this amazing morning across the
board!  It is fascinating to think that we both got such similar results
from the ORIs even though we were hundreds of miles and many degrees of
latitude apart.
Going forward, best of luck on seeing the Taurids, Leonids, Geminids and
all the other minor radiants upcoming.  Thank you also for the strong
verification you gave of my results from down here as well...;o).  I was
beginning to think I may have dreamed it...;o).
It is my wish that all meteor watchers and astronomy buffs everywhere can
see and experience the ORIs in all their glory in this way at least once as
we were fortunate enough to on this spectacular morning!

Warm regards from north Florida, Paul J in St. Augustine

On Tue, Oct 27, 2015 at 12:51 AM, Pierre Martin <pmartin at teksavvy.com>
wrote:

> 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
> _______________________________________________
> meteorobs mailing list
> meteorobs at meteorobs.org
> http://lists.meteorobs.org/mailman/listinfo/meteorobs
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.meteorobs.org/pipermail/meteorobs/attachments/20151027/5cb4a9de/attachment-0001.html 


More information about the meteorobs mailing list