The Orionid Meteor Shower

The Orionoid Meteor shower is beginning. I suggest you all get outside and look up. It is not the brightest shower of the year but it is my favorite due to the nature of it's origin. Here is some info on the shower for those interested. Anyone intersted please go out and look up. Beauty awaits the patient soul.

Source.

Oct. 12, 2012: Usually, waking up before sunrise is a good way to get a head start on the day. On Oct. 21st, waking up early could stop you in your tracks.

Blame Halley’s Comet. Every year in mid-to-late October, Earth passes through a stream of dusty debris from Comet Halley, and the pre-dawn sky lights up with a pretty display of shooting stars.

"We expect to see about 25 meteors per hour when the shower peaks on Sunday morning, Oct 21st," says Bill Cooke, the head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. "With no Moon to spoil the show, observing conditions should be ideal."

ATS search done. If posted already please delete.

If I go outside and look up i'll have a face full of rain.

Pacific Northwest has it's flaws.

I just hope one of those things doesn't come crashing down here like it did in SoCal
We would never see it coming

Now or the 21st?
Does it go until the 21st?
"On the morning of Oct 21st, blazing pieces of Halley’s Comet will cut straight through the heart of this celestial triad.

To see the show, Cooke suggests going outside one to two hours before sunrise when the sky is dark and the constellation Orion is high overhead."
From the article in OP.
Also, thank you.

reply to post by smashdem


21st.

www.meteorscan.com...

Quadrantids - January 3rd
Lyrids - April 21/22
Eta Aquarids - May 5/6th
Perseids - August 12th
Orionids - October 21st
Leonids - November 17th
Geminids - December 13th

Originally posted by smashdem
Now or the 21st?
Does it go until the 21st?
"On the morning of Oct 21st, blazing pieces of Halley’s Comet will cut straight through the heart of this celestial triad.

To see the show, Cooke suggests going outside one to two hours before sunrise when the sky is dark and the constellation Orion is high overhead."
From the article in OP.
Also, thank you.

edit on 18-10-2012 by smashdem because: (no reason given)

edit on 18-10-2012 by smashdem because: (no reason given)

edit on 18-10-2012 by smashdem because: addition

It's happening now. It just peaks on that particular day. Good luck while watching.

Can anyone tell me what the viewing would be like for Southern Australia or what the best times would be?

reply to post by DarknStormy


Providing the weather cooperates, you should be able to see as many (perhaps more) Orionids from Southern Australia as you would from mid-latitudes in the Northern hemisphere.

If the best time to observe in North America is the morning of the 21st, and if Australia is around 15 hours ahead, then I suspect that after dark on the 21st might be the best time to observe. You might want to hedge your bets and observe before dawn on the 21st too if you can.

Good luck

The International Meteor Organization has published a live ZHR graph for this years Orionids which will give you an idea of the number of Orionid meteors you can expect to see. It's not truly "live" as it relies on observations being submitted from observes, but it can give a rough idea of what you might see if you observe.

Note that the "ZHR" is a corrected estimate of what would be seen under ideal observing conditions, so it's very likely that the actual amount of visible meteors will be less than the ZHR value for a given time.

Tonight's the BIG night!

ORIONID METEOR SHOWER--TODAY! Earth is passing through a stream of debris from Halley's Comet, source of the annual Orionid meteor shower. Forecasters expect ~25 meteors per hour when the shower peaks on Oct. 21st. No matter where you live, the best time to look is during the dark hours before sunrise on Sunday morning. Observers in both hemispheres can see this shower.
Meteor Radar
Sky Map
Source: SpaceWeather.com

Post your sightings and/or pictures!

I'm throwing the coffee on and staying up for this one. Beautiful night!

Apologies, I forgot to add the URL to the link I posted above, so here it is again: live ZHR graph for this years Orionids

Clouds, clouds, and more clouds... *sigh*

I swear, just about every meteor shower has been hidden from view by friggin' clouds for the past 2-3 years for me.

/Tinfoil hat on
Where's the HAARP cloud-clearing zaps when you need one ?
/Tinfoil hat off

I just spotted a nice earthgrazer shooting across the constellation Orion here in N. Wisconsin!
Heading back out w/ some hot coffee! Check 'em out if you have clear skies!

reply to post by Evildead


I was up at 6 am GMT and never saw a thing. I hope to see other ATSers pics and vids
if they were lucky enough.

Edit; Just to add the sky this morning was clear as a bell and still NADA.

I just went outside here in south Louisiana to see if I could see anything, granted it's only 3:45 AM here, but I saw nothing and we have clear skies! I think there is too much light pollution here, maybe when I go to Alabama next month I will get to see something!

I went out and had a look at about 4 a.m last night and the night before. Nothing really happened last night but the night before I got a glimpse of about 4 very bright meteors and a strange light flashing at the bottom of Orion. Apart from that, very disappointing considering the sky was very clear.

Well, I went to my treestand early thismorning just to watch. We had clear skies and saw a few fairly decent ones. Hope to catch a few more tomorrow but we shall see. Now if only the deer would come out to play.

UPDATE! It's NOT OVER YET!

ORIONID METEOR UPDATE: The Orionid meteor shower is underway as Earth passes through a stream of debris from Halley's Comet. International meteor counts suggest a broad peak of about 25 meteors per hour centered on Oct. 21st. If the trend holds, sky watchers can expect to see a dozen or so Orionids flitting across the sky every hour after midnight on Oct. 21-22. ~ SpaceWeather.com

I only saw 5 meteors last night/morning. Hoping for a better showing tonight!

Originally posted by DarknStormy
and a strange light flashing at the bottom of Orion.

Sounds like you may have been looking at Jupiter, which was very bright (mag, -2.7) and distracting last night when I went out.

That far South it would not have been very high above the horizon, which makes it more likely to scintilate.

Did it look a bit like this?
www.youtube.com...

Originally posted by DarknStormy
Apart from that, very disappointing considering the sky was very clear.

It sounds like you got to see a bit more than most, at least on the first night.

We had a few short clear spells over here, although it was a bit foggy. I thought I saw one in about 20 minutes, but it was very faint (perhaps mag. +3). I also saw a nice little mag. 0 sporadic meteor.

Most reports I have read so far have said they were faint, and this year's display was a little bit disappointing.

Thomas Ashcraft of Heliotown, New Mexico posted the brightest meteor (it may not even have been an Orionid meteor) that his camera caught on the peak night:

Windows - .wmv

Mac - .mp4

To be fair, a shower like the Orionids, which is not known for very high rates, was never going to be a major event, and was a bit over hyped by the media this year.

A much more dependable meteor shower is the Geminids which is less than 2 months away. Rates usually stay quite high for a few nights in a row, and it's not unusual to see 100 meteors every hour on the peak night from a good rural observing site in the Northern hemisphere. In a good year, with ideal conditions/observing technique, 200+ per hour is possible.

In the Southern hemisphere the rates are reduced the further South you go, but you should still see much better rates than the Orionids seem to be capable of at this point in time.


For anyone who can't wait that long, there is always the Taurids which are active as I type this, and will peak over text 2-3 of weeks. It's not the type of meteor shower that produces high rates, but it has a reputation for producing beautiful and quite slow fireballs once in a while like this one (mpg video clip)caught during NASA's Leonid MAC 2001 Airborne observing campaign. Don't expect to see fireballs like that one, unless you observe all night for multiple nights in a row though - most Taurids are fainter.

reply to post by usmc0311


If any ATS members catch photos or videos of the shower will they please post them!! I'd love to see fellow members experiences rather than google, lol.

Originally posted by Katharos62191
If any ATS members catch photos or videos of the shower will they please post them!!

It's highly unlikely that any member caught anything since the shower was composed of mainly dim meteors at peak, and rates were very low.

I usually run a few cameras during strong shower peaks, but it wasn't worth wearing out my camera shutters just to try and catch one or two (if I was lucky) very dim meteors.

Did you check out the footage from Thomas Ashcraft that I posted above?

Also NASA’s All Sky Fireball Network caught a few.