Time for a break from the mind-crush? See a meteor shower! The Orionids.

[Gabi Hayes]

starting any moment.....

ABOUT the ORIONIDS
http://www.amsmeteors.org/visual.html#orionids

The Orionid meteor shower is active throughout October and the first week of November. This shower is produced by the inbound particles of the famous Halley's Comet, which last passed through the inner solar system in 1986. The Earth passes closest to the comet's orbit on October 21. At this time the Earth actually only skims the outer fringes of the debris field produced by Halley's Comet. The Orionids can still produce a very entertaining display of celestial fireworks, especially when viewed from rural locations. When seen near maximum activity, an observer from a rural location can count 15 to 25 Orionid meteors per hour.

As October arrives, the first of the Orionid meteors may be noticed. At this time the radiant (the area of the sky where the Orionids seem to originate) is located in northern Orion, just a few degrees north of the tight little group of stars formed by Lambda and Phi Orionis. As the month progresses the radiant travels slightly less than one degree toward the northeast each night. On the morning of maximum activity, October 21, the radiant is then located on the Orion/Gemini border, three degrees west of the bright star Alhena (Gamma Geminorum). As we pass into November the radiant has moved well within the constellation of Gemini. The last traces of the Orionid meteor shower may be seen near November 7 when the radiant lies in south-central Gemini near the faint star Lambda Geminorum.

In mid-October the constellation of Orion rises near 2300 (11pm) local daylight time. LDT is your time local regardless of location. You may see meteor activity during the early evening hours, but they will certainly not be Orionids! The Orionids (like all meteors) cannot be seen until they strike that portion of the atmosphere that is visible from your observing site. This can only occur when the radiant has an elevation of -5 degrees or higher. Minus 5? Yes, meteors can actually be seen when their radiant is slightly below the horizon. At this altitude meteors are able to just skim the upper regions of the atmosphere that is visible from your observing site. These meteors are rare and best seen during the strongest showers. You may get lucky and actually see an Orionid "earthgrazer" during the late evening hours. These meteors are different than your average "shooting star" in that they are very long and also long-lasting. The brightest ones can stretch from horizon to horizon, lasting five seconds or more (an eternity compared to the average duration of 0.3 seconds).

As the night progresses the constellation of Orion and the Orionid radiant will climb higher into the sky. The average Orionid meteor will become appear progressively shorter and faster as they strike the dense portions of the upper atmosphere. The radiant will culminate near 0500 LDT, when it lies on the meridian. This will be the best time to see Orionid activity as the radiant will then be located highest above your horizon. To best view Orionid activity look in the general direction of the radiant with the bottom of your field of view situated just above the horizon. Avoid looking straight up as this direction has the thinnest slice of atmosphere. That's great for telescopic work but not for viewing meteor activity. Aim your view a bit closer to the horizon and you will be viewing though a much thicker slice of the atmosphere, allowing you to see more meteor activity. I would also recommend that you not look directly at the radiant as the meteors seen there are short and easily missed. Keep the radiant off to one side of your field of view, but close enough easily tell the meteor came from Orion. Looking in this direction will also help you see the slow Taurid meteors coming from the west and the swift meteors from Leo Minor, coming from the east. Besides these radiants one can also expect up to fifteen random meteors occurring each hour. This offers a good opportunity to see a wide variety of celestial fireworks, if one can stay awake during the early morning hours.







OBSERVING THE SHOWER
http://www.serve.com/wh6ef/comets/meteors/showers/orionidobs.html


The point from where the Orionid meteors appear to radiate is located within the constellation Orion and is referred to as the radiant. The radiant is located in the northeastern part of that constellation. The following charts will help you find it from both the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere:



This represents the view from mid-Northern latitudes at about 1:00 a.m. local time around October 21. The red line across the bottom of the image represents the horizon.

The radiant rises around 10:30 p.m. local time. At about 3:00 a.m. the radiant is about 50 degrees above the southern horizon.




If you can find Orion's belt (I can, and the only other thing I can ever find is the big dipper), just look over the right shoulder (left?) and you might see something

have fun!

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

1. The Orionids Are Just Wanna-Be Leonids And Perseids.

So few in number, but they strive for attention anyway! :P

Just teasin. Thanks for the heads up. Though lord knows you can never see much on the east coast anyway.

[Gabi Hayes]

3. any time....I know...too many people

it's cloudy here, so I won't be going out. then again, they're talking about it on the radio, so maybe I'll drive around, look for a hole, and listen. maybe I can HEAR some!

[William Seger]

8. Could be....

I believe I once heard a meteor, many years ago; it sounded sort of like someone opening a pop bottle slowly. It wasn't until a little later that it occurred to me that, hey, wait a minute, that thing was many miles up; how could I possibly have heard it at the same time I saw it? I convinced myself that I must have imagined the sound, or maybe heard something else and just thought it came from the meteor. Then, I few years ago, I came across a Web article about many similar reports and investigations going on to see if it might be some sort of electrical, low-frequency radio wave transducer type of phenomenon. The article mentioned that wire frame glasses might act as a transducer, and I was wearing them, so maybe I didn't imagine it after all.

[Gabi Hayes]

10. did it have a decent beat?

could you dance to it?

Sun Ra!

Arkestra Cosmic!

[William Seger]

13. Nah, it was pretty dull

But I just searched around to see if anything ever came out of the research, and it appears some evidence has been found: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_6_111/ai_87854873

[Gabi Hayes]

14. thanks for the link...that is pretty fascinating

now, if I can just find that tesseract again.....

TIN

FOIL

ANTENNAE!!!



can you hear me now?

[rumpel]

20. lol

just love it!

:rofl:

[William Seger]

23. ROTFL

That one's going up on my cube wall -- at Verizon!

[Caoimhe]

2. Thank you

Doesn't matter what the cluster is called.. the need for me to take advantage of my remote location (albeit mostly redneck repuke) and wander outside to see the shows from the heavens...is overwhelming. I go out and see these things and the redneck repukes haven't a clue.

[Gabi Hayes]

4. haaaaaaaaaa.....I sent that picture to my GF a few weeks ago.

she loves those cats! I gave her an appointment for a massage for her birthday along with the pic.

....we don't live anywhere near each other, so.....

[EST]

5. Thank you.

Just got back in - been freezing my tutu off, standing around out there in my underwear, barefooted, with a winter coat on. Saw a few, most of them traveling south. I live pretty far out in the country so no one would notice or remark if I ran around naked-as I sometimes do.

[Gabi Hayes]

6. Where the hell is Dix, IL? I grew up here, spent most of my miz life

here, and have only heard of Dixon

give me a clue, there!

too lazy for google at this time of night

thx

[Gabi Hayes]

7. near BELLEVILLE! I looked

been near there quite a few times.

[EST]

9. Actually it is nowhere near Belleville, unless one uses a small

map. Dix is just off interstate 57, about seventeen miles north of Mt. Vernon.
I live 6.9 miles ENE of Dix-I am on the Dix rural mail route and that's the reason for the address. I'm actually closer to Kell, Ill.

Dix is supposed to be one of Michael Jackson's two favorite towns in Illinois. Those are, of course, Dix and Dubois (pronounced do boys.)

It's about one hundred miles from me to Belleville.

Pretty dark out here, with the exception of a couple of dusk to dawn lights. I just found out that I can see almost as well with tuning off the light and computer and looking out my front window.

[Gabi Hayes]

11. that's pretty close, cosmically speaking

I just glanced at the map...it was only an inch and a half away!

[Gabi Hayes]

12. oh, yeah....glad you got to see some shooters, btw!

still too cloudy here

I channel your vision

[EST]

16. For the first time in years, the sky is crystal clear, here, at this

time.
Amazin'.

I love your peechur...

[Gabi Hayes]

19. this one's a lot bigger/better:

=http://www.gecdsb.on.ca/d&g/astro/music/Galaxy_Song.html=

take away the = signs at each end

it's got a hot spot in the lower right corner that lets you make it BIG!

[EST]

15. You are, indeed, correct.

Lessee here, now...
At the universal speed limit of approx. 186,000 miles per second-
or 186 miles per millisecond, or about 500+ microseconds
So I'm about a half a millisecond from Belleville.
Pretty close, as energy flies.

[Gabi Hayes]

17. thanks for the reminder! excellent way to wind down:

http://www.gecdsb.on.ca/d&g/astro/music/Galaxy_Song.html

Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown,
And things seem hard or tough,
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft,
And you feel that you've had quite eno-o-o-o-o-ough...

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the "Milky Way".

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go 'round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.

(Animated calliope interlude)

The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.

[EST]

18. Thanks again.

[Gabi Hayes]

21. any time.....gnight

[Gabi Hayes]

22. one last....this is stunning:

[eppur_se_muova]

24. Thanks for that! Nice to know something else is going on in the Universe.