The Orionids are still going strong though rates have come down from Tuesday morning’s peak. In the past 3 nights, the number of Orionids detected with the Tucson camera has slowly declined from 54 to 45 to 40. Visual observations reported to the International Meteor Organization (IMO) also show a decline in the ZHR from ~40 to ~25. Rates should continue to decline as the Earth’s moves further away from the orbit of the Orionids.
Bob writes “The threat from fog is over as Santa Ana conditions now prevail. The camera is now pointed at the zenith as the threat of moonlight entering the field of view is over. Although the skies are excellent from home it took me 9 hours to match the totals I accumulated in a little under 2 hours the previous night. I don’t believe the rates are all that different plus the moonlight was worse the previous night!”
Obs Date (UT) TotTime TOT SPO NTA STA ORI EGE LMI Carl 2008-10-23 11h 09m 72 24 3 3 40 1 1 Bob 2008-10-23 9h 01m 130 45 1 4 74 1 5
TotTime – Total amount of time each camera looked for meteors
TOT – total number of meteors detected
SPO – Sporadics (meteors not affiliated with any particular meteor shower)
NTA – Northern Taurids
STA – Southern Taurids
ORI – Orionids
EGE – Epsilon Gemininds
LMI – Leo Minorids
The Transient Sky - Comets, Asteroids, Meteors 