Monday, October 19, 2009
Orionoid Meteors - 21-23 October 2009
The northern horizon at 4:00 am daylight saving time (3:00 am non-daylight saving). The Orionid Meteor Radiant is marked with a cross (click to embiggen)The Orionids are a nice little meteor shower meteor shower, that peak between 21 and 23 October.
In Australia/ New Zealand/South East Asia they are best seen between 3-5 am (daylight saving time), the radiant being just under Betelgueuse, the bright red star in Orion (see diagram to the left).
This year the best viewing is the morning of the 22nd, when between 4-5 am you should see about a meteor every 3 minutes. However, you should see some decent meteors on the morning of the 21st and 23rd as well as well. The sky is nice and dark at these times, with the thin crescent Moon in the early evening sky. When you come out to watch, you will need to wait a few minutes for your eyes to adapt to the sky, so be patient if you don't see meteors right way. don't forget to rug up warmly as well.
To check your local rates, go to the meteor flux estimator page and choose 8 Orionids, your location and type of skies (and make sure to set the date to October 2009). Cloud cover predictions can be found at SkippySky.
Labels: Meteors
# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 7:27 am 
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