Orionids?

[Mikezoom]

Arn't the Orionids peaking in the next week or two? Anyone got more information? I will try to photograph some this year but have not heard much & yes I love google too but I have not seen anything about them concerning the Southern hemisphere. Thanks in advance guys & girls & clear skies!!!! :thumbsup:

Mike.B. :hi:

[ballaratdragons]

Yes Mike,

The Orionids peak on 21st October.

Although our sky was littered with Fireballs from the North last night! ?? Bit wierd!

[[1ponders]]

For upcoming astronomical events, check the Events Calendar in the LH side bar.

[CoombellKid]

You Almost had me opening SN :lol: until I figured out what you really meant Doh!

regards,CS sunny days

Rob

[robin]

Sorry if this has been asked but my japanese exchange student is bugging me to see 'shooting stars'.What time on the 21st will be best for viewing the Orionids?

[jase]

Generally, the early morning hours are best, but this can vary.
Check out http://skytour.homestead.com/met2006.html#anchor_10 for some general information.

Assuming clear conditions, I will be certain to set up a camera on the fixed tripod to see how many I can capture each hour. With a new moon, it should be as good as it gets for the Orionids.:thumbsup:

If you have the urge to do some serious research go to www.imo.net

[jjjnettie]

Even though they peak on the 21st, for a night or 2 before and after that date you should still get a good display.
Orion rises around midnight.

[middy]

So how many degrees away from the radiant should I aim the camera? 20, 30 degrees????

[jase]

This depends on the lens you'll be using. If you've got a fisheye or around 18mm-25mm, I'd point it straight up (zenith). Something longer i.e standard 35mm-50mm then I'd go for something around 20 degrees above the horizon. You can get some really nice shots if you decide to frame a foreground object like a tree or water feature, like a pond or dam - nice reflections. Depends on how creative you want to get. The orionids generally has a peak 20 an rate so don't expect to easily capture one. If you've got an all sky camera your chances improve.
Certainly don't waste your time by pointing the camera at the radiant. You'll see more overhead or in the NW. I've wasted plenty of film before and I intend to do it again.:) Chance of getting one of film is the fun. If you're shutter aint open, then you wont capture anything.:thumbsup:

http://www.spaceweather.com/meteors/leonids/phototips.html
General tips.

[middy]

Thanks for the info.

Lets do some calculations:

ZHR says 20 meteors/hour.

My StarTracker will track for 3/4 of an hour before I have to reset it. This gives a potential 3/4 * 20 = 15 meteors/hour.

With my camera on wide angle (~ 35mm) I will only be aiming at a small section of the full 360 deg. arc around the radiant point. Lets say 60 deg. for arguments sake.

Therefore the number of meteors available to me is 15 * 60/360 = ~2 meteors/hour.

My camera has a max. exposure time of 64 secs. It then spends another 64 secs. processing the image before it is ready to take another shot. This gives me a 50% duty cycle. Hence my 2 available meteors/hr becomes 1 meteor/hour.

I can live with those odds. I'll have a crack. :P

[jase]

Thats the spirit Andrew.;) You never know your luck.:) I generally use an old 35mm camera with a bulb setting so I can leave the shutter open for long periods of time. I'm not interested in tracking, simply capturing as many meteors as possible.

Post your images for us all to see if you get a hit.:thumbsup:

[ballaratdragons]

I'm not sure what you guys can see in the cities, but I have been seeing Orionids for a few days already in my dark sky. Some are verrrry faint. Others are nice and bright. The rate has been about 1 meteor every 2 - 3 minutes, and occasionally 2 or 3 within the same minute.

[jase]

Wow Ken. Thats impressive. Looks like the IMO (http://www.imo.net) information of a 20/hr peak rate may not be accurate. You should collect some of these figures and report back. Perhaps we are in for a good surprise this year. I'll be heading down to my dark sky site Friday evening. Looking foward to the light show.:thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

I cut and paste this info from MeteorShowersOnline.


The Orionids are barely detectable on the beginning and ending dates, but observers in the Northern Hemisphere will see around 20 meteors per hour at maximum, while observers in the Southern Hemisphere will see around 40 meteors per hour. The maximum can last two or three nights, although there is evidence of some fluctuation from year to year.

Here's hoping for a bit of fluctuation!

[astroron]

At 23:40 last night 18/10/06 I saw two quite bright Meteors side by side leaving medium length trails, passed over my head from the direction of Orion heading West North West. quiet spectacular.

[mickkk]

Im still waiting for a clear sky.....

[Dave47tuc]

Weather is patchy in Melbourne at the moment.
Hopefully it clears tonight - tomorrow morning for some viewing.:whistle:
Orionids can be patchy but you never know what you may catch when you drop the line in:whistle:
Happy viewing.:)

[ballaratdragons]

Darren and I stayed up watching the Orionids till 4:30 am this morning.

It was Fantastic in Dark sky!!!!!!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Exremely bright, with loooong trails.

We (Darren, his daughter, me and my 3 kids) have set ourselves up in my back paddock for another night of Orionids. Got the tents up, the kids ready, and scopes cooling for viewing before the event after midnight.

Forecast for Snake Valley is clear sky and -4 degrees :eyepop: with a sever frost warning.

[Dave47tuc]

Last night a few of us went to the local observatory site and observed between midnight and dawn. :whistle:
Unfortunately we had cloud for at least an hour and a half of this time.
We did get to see over a dozen Orionids some very bright with spectacular trains.:eyepop:
It was well worth the effort.:D

[ballaratdragons]

WOW!!! :eyepop:

We (Darren and I)had an excellent night!

After a usual sky tour thru the 12" and the ED80 we hunted down Galaxies thru Fornax and Eridanus.

We had 10/10 Trans 10/10 seeing!!!!!!!!

Then the show started!

We sat back comfortably on our recliners as the meteors gave a great display. There were faint fast white ones every minute or so, then at least every 2 minutes was an amazing yellowish streak across the sky.

One in particular had us jump up out of our comfort to watch it as it went from Orion, under LMC, kept going and then finally fizzed out about 5 degrees above the SW horizon, leaving a trail the whole way. As the head faded, the end of the tail started to fade and then all the tail dissolved. The whole tail was visible for about 6 seconds!!!!!!!

By 2:30am we couldn't stand the minus 5 temperature any longer. We were frozen, and called it a night.

All up, we had a great observing time both thru the scopes and then the Orionid show :thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

We had some much needed rain where I am. Sound like it was a great night Ken.

[Tamtarn]

We went out to dinner last night by the time we got home we just crashed into bed. So we missed the show :(

Sounds like it was a fantastic night Ken !!

Hope we can catch some Orionids tonight

[ballaratdragons]

Here are some pics from the Orionid show night.

Not of Orionids though! :lol:

This is what minus 5 looks like :cold:

1. Me rugged up watching the show with my black doggies keeping me warm :lol:
2. Darren (Wombat_In_Space) trying to get the ice of his scope :P

[gaa_ian]

Sounds great Ken, on a working holiday myself ATM & saw just a few from the resort balcony.
I hope the Lads in Gove did better !

[circumpolar]

For all those thinking it's to late to see a good meteor display, think again. I got up at 3:00am to a surprise. Many meteors leaving smoke trains.
The brightest one was at 3:30am maybe -9!!! :eyepop: . I was looking down at the ground when I started cursing "who turned the #!*#!! light on!" The entire lawn lit up like moonlight. I had time to look up and catch the end of it as it surged in brightness again, leaving a train that lasted about eight mins to the naked eye and still visable in binos 20mins later! It was heading straight towards Crux and not going as fast as I had expected.

I guess I saw about 6 meteors brighter then -1, most of them were whitish/blue. The fainter ones seemed to be more yellowish.


Their velocity is listed as 66km/sec (the same as the eta-Aquarids in May this year) but now having seen both showers, I think that the Orionids are slower by about 10%. I am curious if other members agree.

[ballaratdragons]

:shrug: sounds a bit odd!

[RAJAH235]

FWIW. We WAACers were at our site a few years ago, at about this time of year, & we saw a few like that.
One trail in particular, was about 15 to 20 degrees long, lasted about 15 mins, naked eye.
The air was dead calm, with a little moisture fairly high up, which made the view possible. It just seemed to 'drift' along, almost complete, with just the slightest disturbances in the trail.
We never thought, (why)?, to try with binoculars, as it was very cold n we were busy, chatting n having coffee n biccies.(Damn it was cold). :D L.

[circumpolar]

The line of smoke did start to spead out and become wider but was still very straight. Don't forget that this was a very bright one.

When I watched the eta-Aquarids at a dark sky location on the morning May 6th 2006, there were sometimes several train visiable at once. I remember that day very well. When I climbed out of my tent at 02:00am and looked up, I saw straight away a meteor leaving a train, then I realised that I was in fact looking at many smoke trains all radiating out from Aqurius! It was fantastic!, my best session as yet.

I find that when I observe showers, I tend to keep glancing back at the area where the last bright meteor was, hoping it might repeat :screwy:, and when the conditions are still, the trains can last a very long time.

[ballaratdragons]

Wow! that is cooool!

Darren and I didn't search any areas where they had been as we were too busy watching new ones :lol:

[gaa_ian]

Sounds like a great show, reports from gove were good.
One orionid (i presume) lasted a full 6 seconds was green & disappeared over the horizion :eyepop:
There was obviously a lot of meteor activity on that night. As we stepped off the plane in Rocky, I saw a Bolide falling to the eastern horizion, that split in 2 as it disintergrated :thumbsup:, & that was under the glare of the airport lights.