Continuing to catch up with old observing reports 🙂
Last year, I was able to get only one night of observing for October’s Orionids. This is one of my favourite annual showers, not only because of its association with Comet Halley, but also because of it’s “plateau like” duration and occasional enhancements. In some rare years, such as 2006-2008, there put on spectacular displays with rates that approach that of the Perseids or Geminids. Most years however, it is a moderate shower, rich in faint meteors.
2017 appeared to be a normal year. I went to Bootland Farm to observe from 1:30-6:10am and Shane Finnigan joined me as well. The sky transparency was below average, with a haze surrounding the horizons, and possibly thin cirrus clouds above us. This was evident with the larger than usual city glows from Ottawa and Renfrew, and the limiting mag above was 6.2 at best. The temperature was a mild +10C and with absolutely no bugs 🙂
In the 4 hours I watched formally, I saw 92 meteors (60 Orionids, 4 N. Taurids, 3 S. Taurids, 2 Leo Minorids, 2 Andromedids, 1 chi Taurid, 1 Epsilon Geminid and 19 sporadics). Orionids hourly rates were 9, 18, 18 and 15. All in all, a pretty good night!
Without a doubt, the highlight-of-the-night was the mag -5 Orionid fireball seen in the last hour. It travelled over 30 degrees before producing a bright terminal flash, and leaving a 7 minutes persistent train! WOW!! I had time to pull out the 9×63 binocs to get a close-up view of the afterglow hanging amongst the stars, and slowly turning into an expanding “Z” shape that filled the field of view!
Here’s the Orionids 2017 photography results. I had two cameras running the entire night, and I was surprised to have captured a decent number of meteors despite the slightly hazy sky:
October 20/21 2017, 05:30-10:10 UT (01:30-06:10 EDT)
Location: Bootland Farm (Stewartville), Ontario, Canada
(Long: -76 deg 29′; Lat: 45 deg 23′)
Observed showers:
Southern Taurids (STA) – 02:44 (041) +11
Northern Taurids (NTA) – 02:30 (038) +18
Orionids (ORI) – 06:24 (096) +16
epsilon Geminids (EGE) – 07:04 (106) +28
Leonis Minorids (LMI) – 10:40 (160) +37
Andromedids (AND) – 00:28 (007) +23
chi Taurids (CTA) – 03:20 (050) +24
nu Eridanids (NUE) – 06:54 (104) +12
05:30-06:30 UT; clear but hazy; 2/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.25; facing S50 deg; teff 1.00 hr; 10C
ORI: nine: -1; 0; +1; +2; +3; +4; +5(3)
NTA: two: +2(2)
STA: one: +4
AND: one: +1
Sporadics: five: +2; +3(2); +4(2)
Total meteors: Eighteen
06:30-07:30 UT; clear but hazy; 2/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.25; facing S50 deg; teff 1.00 hr; 10C
ORI: eighteen: -1(2); 0; +1(2); +2(3); +3(5); +4(2); +5(3)
STA: one: +1
AND: one: +3
CTA: one: +3
Sporadics: four: +3; +4(2); +5
Total meteors: Twenty-five
07:44-08:50 UT; clear but hazy; 2/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.25; facing S50 deg; teff 1.01 hr; 9C
ORI: eighteen: -1; 0; +1(2); +2(3); +3(4); +4(4); +5(3)
STA: one: +4
NTA: one: +5
Sporadics: six: +3(2); +4; +5(3)
Total meteors: Twenty-six
09:01-10:10 UT; clear but hazy; 2/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.25; facing S50 deg; teff 1.01 hr; 9C
ORI: fifteen: -5; +1(2); +2(3); +4(5); +5(4)
LMI: two: +3(2)
NTA: one: +3
EGE: one: +4
Sporadics: four: +2; +3(2); +4
Total meteors: Twenty-three
Clear skies,
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
