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Re: (meteorobs) Re: Orionids absent from Florida



Hi Norm,
   I just wanted to let you know that I also observed
for the 1985 Orionids from outside St. Augustine on
Oct 19/20 that year.  I hit 36 Orionids in the last
hour before dawn, up until that time, the strongest
Orionid shower I had ever seen.  I was able to surpass
that in 1996 from Sicily, however, when I hit 38
Orionids on Oct 20/21 in that last hour before dawn. 
Seems like things have quieted down a lot since then! 
Paul Jones


--- nmcleod@peganet.com wrote:
> On the first of five nights of Orionid maximum, 2000
> Oct 20/21, I saw a nice
> casual white-blue 0m Orionid near midnight while
> lettting the dogs out back.
> The sky was 70% cloudy at the time.  The meteor was
> seen mostly inside the
> Jupiter-Saturn-Aldebaran triangle.  (In August I saw
> the moon fully interior
> to the same triangle : the window of opportunity was
> only  two hours for
> that.)  After 3 AM with sky mostly clear but hazy --
> LM 3 near the moon, LM
> 4 elsewhere, during our late-night dog walk combined
> with nearly 10 minutes
> back home watching the sky, neither of us saw a
> meteor at all.  Joan is
> itching to see some meteors, but we are striking out
> almost completely this
> year despite a fair amount of time outside on a
> casual basis.
> 
> The next night had good conditions.  We walked too
> early to really have a
> chance to see an Orionid.  I went out at the prime
> time for 63 minutes in
> the front yard with sky LM 5.  Covering 432 - 535
> EDT  (832 - 935 UT)  I was
> shooting for zero Orionids but did manage to see 2
> of them late in the
> session.  Total 5 meteors : Orionid mags 2,3 ; one
> South Taurid 3, one North
> Taurid 3, one sporadic 3.  Field of view was
> restricted by 1/3 due to trees
> and house -- lesser influence on me than most others
> as I see very little at
> the edges of my field anyway.  The conditions should
> have allowed me to see
> at least 10 Orionids, so what's going on?  One
> possibility is that they are
> extremely faint this year.  My long-term average is
> only 3.40m for LM7.0
> sky, so this is the year's faintest shower (tied
> with Delta Aquarids).
> 
> It could be a 1985-type shower with lots of +5m's
> and +6m's.  That year I
> saw my best Orionid shower ever, 40 in one hour with
> sky LM7.3.  But nobody
> else reported it at that strength, surely due to sky
> conditions alone.  By
> coincidence Comet Halley was located right at the
> radiant.
> 
> I want to get out to the dark site for the final two
> max nights, Oct 23/24
> and the next one.  There is too much to do on Monday
> so I have to skip the
> present night, which is a bit hazy again but would
> be usable.  Similar
> conditions should persist a while longer : breezy
> east wind, night sky
> mostly clear, low temp mid-60'sF town and low-60's
> inland.  There will still
> be mosquitoes outside town (urban areas get sprayed)
> until late November on
> average, other than that, nights are pleasant for
> the first time since early
> May.
> 
> Norman
> Norman W. McLeod III
> Staff Advisor
> American Meteor Society
> 
> Fort Myers, Florida
> nmcleod@peganet.com
> 
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