(meteorobs) Taurid activity 30/31 october 2015

Koen Miskotte k.miskotte at upcmail.nl
Sat Oct 31 06:20:04 EDT 2015


Hello!
Last night (30/31 oktober 2015) I could observe meteors between 22:28 and 00:32 UT. I actually wanted to go to bed but after a look at the stars it turned out that the heavy cirrus cover earlier that evening was moving away. Of course there was plenty of moonlight, but the goal was to see if the Taurids were active again just as in 1981, 1988, 1995 (during Leonid expedition), 1998 (during Leonid expedition) and 2005.
Well, the Taurids activity seems to be on course to another “swarm year”.
I just  processed the observations of last night. I observed between 22:28 and 00:32 UT (with a 2-minute break in de second hour).
The limiting magnitude decreases from 5.7 to 5.4, due to the rising moon and also re-emerging very thin cirrus in the second hour. I looked at 50 degrees altitude in north-northwesterly direction, this also to keep the moon out of the field. After looking at the pictures of my all sky camera it shows that I have observed just in a good period, because after ending the observations more cirrus appeared.
 
30/31 October 2015 between 22:28 and 23:28 UT, 5.6 lm
For 1.00 hours of effective observation time I saw 9 meteors of which 5 were Taurids. The best meteor was after two minutes after starting the observation. A orange Taurid of magnitude 0 in Cygnus. Ten minutes later a +1 Tauride in Hercules. I saw in this period respectively magn. 0, +1, +2, +2 and +3 Taurids.
 
30/31 October 2015 between 23:28 and 00:32 UT, 5.4 lm
For 1.03 effective observation time I observed 6 meteors, of which 4 Taurids. These were of brightness magnitude +4, -2, +4, +3. The magnitude -2 Tauride was very beautiful, typical orange and moved from Cameliopardalis to the Big Dipper. At was also captured with my all sky camera. The -2 Taurid appeared 10 seconds after a +4 Taurid.
 
Also did a quick ZHR.calculation. Please do not take too seriously the outcome, after a Lm 5.5 too low to really get reliable results. It is also reflected in the deviation. I find respectively:
1st hour    ZHR 11.58 ~ 5.18
2nd hour   ZHR  9.56 ~ 4.78
In addition, a population index r value of 2 was adopted, and a cp of 1.2.
The ZHR is clearly higher than normal, I usually end up at 5 in normal Taurids years.

My all sky camera captured some bright Taurids the last week. Also my two CAMS systems recorded plenty Taurids.

Hope we have some clear nights in de coming two or three weeks.

good luck everyone and best regards, Koen



 
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