A pristine clear evening ended up being cloudy with light rain in the early hours of the morning.
I don't like my chances tonight either.
Pity, I was looking forward to catching a few Orionids on the gstar.
clouds messed up my night mostly, so didnt travel to a dark site. few large holes in the early morning from backyard - so had a few short sessions, last one finishing at around 4 am, ...didnt see one meteor!! LOL, but I think i saw the same sat. as h0ughy saw, did it travel west to east dude? it was overhead for me, time matched yours, i enjoyed watching it tho, I love the sound of the trampoline as horizontal observing deck, man i could get used to that!
was 22C minimum for us, so players comfort was high at least
I too spent Friday night and Saturday morning observing my first Orionid shower. I also tried to photograph some. I only saw 4 bright ones, almost yellow in color, but managed to image one (out of 40 x 3 minute shots I was hoping for a few more). It came from above Orions belt and went down. The others all came from below the belt, not far from Mars. Is there more than one radiant for "the Orionids"?
good shot davo ,fog rolled in at 2.30 this morning could not see athing as houghy said it was dripping wet,seen 1 metoer,iam going to try tonight
I've been watching for the Orionids from work since about 1:00 a.m. I can't watch every minutes, but have been checking periodically. I've seen only five meteors so far: 1:41, 2:35, 3:20, 3:28, 3:29. One of the meteors came from within Orion, around the belt area. Another came from the top of Orion, which is actually on it's side right now. Another came from near Mars, and several more came from within Gemini, to the far left of Orion. One was a very long streak, but not bright. I may have seen several other very faint meteors, but can't be sure. There is too much light from the city, and where I work.
I'll be going outside again here soon. I'm hoping to see a better show from the Orionids ....
I've seen only five meteors so far: 1:41, 2:35, 3:20, 3:28, 3:29.
Nice work. I was thinking while I was lying on my trampoline that wouldn't It be great to use a clicker or something to record the exact time I see a meteor and then compare it to other peoples observations. Maybe next time during the Leonids or Geminids. If I get organised I'll start a tread just for this purpose.
Last night/this morning I wasn't outside looking. It was too early. I was in the control room imaging.
Then at 1am the cloud rolled in.
Tonight is partly cloudy but I will head out about 1:30-2am and see how the sky is.
If it is clear I will stay out and wait for the 2:30am onwards show.
Due to our dark skies, I see many sporadics anytime I go outside and look up, but Orionids are usually very obvious. They are fast, white, and often very bright! But the radiant is always the give away.
Last night/this morning I wasn't outside looking. It was too early. I was in the control room imaging.
Then at 1am the cloud rolled in.
Tonight is partly cloudy but I will head out about 1:30-2am and see how the sky is.
If it is clear I will stay out and wait for the 2:30am onwards show.
Due to our dark skies, I see many sporadics anytime I go outside and look up, but Orionids are usually very obvious. They are fast, white, and often very bright! But the radiant is always the give away.
I have attached a map of the radiant for you all.
I saw nine meteors between 5:08 and 5:28. Two of them were very bright, one that left a trail which lasted about 10-15 seconds, another that appeared to give off a greenish light and a very brightg burst of light! One meteor was only about half the length of Orion's belt, another was very long, about the distance of Orion from top to bottom, but not very bright.
The meteors that I've seen are all around Orion, from above, below, and on either side, covering a wide area. Most of the meteors I've seen are around or from within Orion, but several have been from the area of Gemini and Mars. One meteor was very far to the right (west) of Orion.
My little boy (10 years old) is lying down at home outside in the chilly morning air, watching the first meteor shower he has ever seen! We are chatting on the phone, while I'm at work, and sharing the experience.
I wish that I could watch the sky more, but I have chores to do at work. Still need to finish the paper work, and grab a quick bite to eat, before I hit the swimming pool at 7:00 for a good workout, then the spa, sauna, and finally a quick workout with the weights and machines.
-- vja4Him
++++++++++
Last edited by vja4Him; 21-10-2007 at 10:48 PM.
Reason: Forgot to add more details ....
The meteors that I've seen are all around Orion, from above, below, and on either side, covering a wide area. Most of the meteors I've seen are around or from within Orion, but several have been from the area of Gemini and Mars. One meteor was very far to the right (west) of Orion.
-- vja4Him
++++++++++
That's great.
If you watch any part of the sky long enough you will find that you will see meteors in that area too. They actually happen all over but usually we aren't looking at the part of the sky where they zoom through. Occasionally we happen to be looking in the right spot at the right time, but they do zoom around from any direction all night long.
If you get the chance, try it some time. Lay so you are looking up at Zenith and see how many ther are in any given hour!!! They are Sporadics. (light pollution makes it hard to see the common faint fast ones)
I was just wondering is there some sort of 'rule of thumb' or 'crude' way of roughly estimating the ZHR under different sky limiting magnitudes?? i understand that many factors will impact this number. However, I'm just trying to get some idea. For example, with the current Orionids....the predicted ZHR is about 25 under perfect conditions. What could I expect under suburban Adelaide skies?
What about the Geminids? The predicted ZHR is 120.
I was just wondering is there some sort of 'rule of thumb' or 'crude' way of roughly estimating the ZHR under different sky limiting magnitudes?? i understand that many factors will impact this number. However, I'm just trying to get some idea. For example, with the current Orionids....the predicted ZHR is about 25 under perfect conditions. What could I expect under suburban Adelaide skies?
What about the Geminids? The predicted ZHR is 120.
The ZHR for Orionids in the Sthn Hemisphere is actually 40.
It is 20 in the Northern Hemisphere
wow nice widefield with meteor shot dave, always had a thing for those kind of shots you have a bit of barnards loop and all, got to be happy with that, and yes it is prety darn hard to catch even one meteor from bitter experience, need storms really so you've done very well, they are extremely camera shy. even if it is a stray i'm not prejudiced!
for my meteor watching, i print outa scene like this from SN (usually inverted) and keep it in my orionid folder and use it every year after, ( along with a couple of specialised others for quickly determining LM's and meteor brightness - comparison stars)
with all the active radiants of the period (plus the others of course, as I can only have all showers selected at once or a single one in my old SN version)
I was just wondering is there some sort of 'rule of thumb' or 'crude' way of roughly estimating the ZHR under different sky limiting magnitudes?? i understand that many factors will impact this number. However, I'm just trying to get some idea. For example, with the current Orionids....the predicted ZHR is about 25 under perfect conditions. What could I expect under suburban Adelaide skies?
What about the Geminids? The predicted ZHR is 120.
yes there is swannie, but considering ZHR is an imaginary/theoretical figure anyway, as the radiant is rarely/never at the zenith of course (unless your at the equator for this one when it crosses meridian) first you have to deduct the degrees away from zenith in the equation to give you the actual possible, and remember that is also under 6.5? mag pristine 'nearly as good as it gets' skies/conditions, rate.
I can't remember the simple equation for it offhand tho, and anyway thats changing rapidly every degree the radiant rises anyway, so its not really important once you know that, but take it into account.
then you have to know the known averaged overall median brightness of the shower members, its usually about +3 +4 area overall, thats what the leonids usually are for instance, in 'normal' years, some showers brighter, some dimmer averages.
i guess you could take that in to account with your local LM to get a rough idea anyway. but i find in the suburbs trees and buildings/houses get in the way just as much as LP with showers, and particle pollution is heaps worse in town, and imo, adds to the problems of visibilty.
i like wide open treeless areas for showers if possible
If the shower is a bit mild, you know in binocs your LM goes up, so you can see the dimmer previously invisible meteors zip thru fov, i have entertained myself that way in a dim shower once - was great to do now and then in lulls
i remember a storm (leonids?) but all the meteors were about mag +7 thru to mag 10 or something LOL radio obs catches it all tho - invisible meteor storm - cool!
Found myself wide awake at 4 this morning (had an active weekend, in bed early Sunady night but obviously enough sleep had been had) so I went into the backyard and lay down on a reclining chair watching toward the radiant. Very quickly saw one meteor heading west from the radiant, then another at the same altidude heading east. A while later, saw a third nearly overrhead heading south but definately coming fronm the direction of the radiant. All three were very bright but very quick; probaly lasting less than a second. By 4:30 the sky was brightening considerably and didn't see any more.
Wish I'd woken up earlier!
