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(meteorobs) Observation October 22/23 2000
For the third night in a row, I was out to monitor the Orionids near
peak, this time at the Casselman site for over 6 hours teff. Once
again, a clear crisp night but even cooler as it got down to a low of
-4C with a layer of frost on everything. I was glad to have the
comfort of my coffin!! The sky started with LM=6.4 but was reduced
slightly after moonrise.
Activity was quite decent with a total of 196 meteors (95 Orionids,
10 south Taurids, 9 north Taurids, 8 Epsilon Geminids, 5 Leo Minorids
and 69 sporadics; including north and south apex sources). It was an
enjoyable night with all that activity going on!
It took less than a minute after sign-on to see a magn +2
earthgrazing Orionid! It shot 25 degrees with one sec train. Orionids
that night had an average magn of +2.98. The brighter ones were often
coloured yellow, orange or blue. The best Orionid was a magn -2
forshortened meteor near the radiant.
It all seems like an ordinary Orionid maximum this year, and perhaps
just a bit fainter than usual. In 1998, I had my best ever Orionid
rates (30/hr), and one major fireball of magnitude -8 with 480
seconds persistent train!! I once read about 1993's pre-max Orionid
fireballs and 1995's enhanced rates (top ZHR of 50). My question...
is the Orionid activity slightly periodic, and is there a known
pattern for the occasional fireballs and changing rates we see? I
still haven't seen a more complete analysis on the 1998 Orionids. I
guess we were all more into concentrating most efforts for Leonids
that year.
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
DATE: October 22/23 2000
BEGIN: 3:25 UT (23:25 EDT) END: 10:20 UT (6:20 EDT)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.063 West; Lat: 45.269 North Elevation:100m
City & Province: Casselman, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVED SHOWERS: 3-letter code; radiant position
ORI (Orionids) 06h24 +16
NTA (north Taurids) 038 +17
STA (south Taurids) 039 +11
EGE (Epsilon Geminids) 07h04 +27
LMI (Leo Minorids) 10h48 +37
nAPX (north apex sporadics) 07h56 +35
sAPX (south apex sporadics) 07h56 +05
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen; / = shower not observed
PERIOD(UT) FIELD Teff F LM SPO nAPX sAPX ORI NTA STA EGE LMI
3:25-4:25 01h31 +15 1.00 1.00 6.43 7 1 0 7 1 3 0 0
4:25-5:30 02h59 +21 1.08 " 6.44 10 0 0 11 3 2 2 0
5:35-6:35 03h51 +17 1.00 " 6.45 10 0 1 13 2 3 2 1
6:35-7:36 04h19 +15 1.00 " 6.45 8 2 0 20 2 2 0 1
7:36-8:38 04h52 +14 1.03 " 6.35 8 0 2 17 1 0 1 1
8:50-9:50 06h07 +14 1.00 " 6.25 8 2 2 21 0 0 3 0
9:50-10:20 06h54 +13 0.49 " 6.20 6 0 2 6 0 0 0 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS: 6.60 57 5 7 95 9 10 8 5 = 196
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:
SHOWER -2 -1 0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 AVERAGE
SPO 0 0 2 3 11 22 16 14 1 +3.34
ORI 1 3 1 9 20 19 29 12 1 +2.98
STA 0 0 0 1 3 1 3 2 0 +3.20
NTA 0 0 0 0 2 4 2 1 0 +3.22
EGE 0 1 2 0 2 0 2 1 0 +2.0
LMI 0 1 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 0.6
------------------------------------------
TOTALS: 1 5 7 13 40 46 52 30 2
------------------------------------------
SKY OBSCURED:
None
------------------------
Dead time: 1.5 min
Breaks: 5:30-5:35, 7:14-7:15, 8:38-8:50, 10:18 (30sec)
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