Oct 19/20 Meteors

The peak of the Orionids is here. Last night’s numbers were comparable to what was seen last year on Oct 20 and 21 UT. This suggests that the Orionids are at least as strong (ZHR = 30-40 meteors per hour) as they were last year. Visual reports to the IMO also suggest rates of 30-40 per hour last night. The good news is tonight should be just as good, and maybe even better. So if your sky is semi-dark and you’d like to see a few meteors, bundle up and head outside around 3-4 am. Meteors should be observable in all parts of the sky at a rate of ~1 per minute from very dark sites to ~1 every 10 minutes in bright suburbs.

Obs Date(UT)TotTime TOT SPO NTA STA ORI OCU SSA EGE LMI
TUS Oct-20  11h 06m 145  38  2   2   91  2   2   3   5
SDG Oct-20  00h 00m Clouds all night

TUS – Camera in Tucson operated by Carl Hergenrother
SDG – Camera in San Diego operated by Bob Lunsford
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/STA – Northern and Southern Taurids (includes Antihelions)
ORI – Orionids
ZTA – Zeta Taurids
OCU – October Ursae Majorids
SSA – Sigma Arietids
EGE – Epsilon Geminids
LMI – Leonis Minorids