The night of October 21/22 marked the peak of this year’s Orionids shower. For observers around the world the display was hampered by a Full Moon which never left the night sky. Here in Tucson, the sky was mostly cloudy as a cut-off low brought some light rain. Still, there were enough clear patches to count quite a few meteors.
Visual reports submitted to the International Meteor Organization suggest a peak ZHR of ~40-50 per hour. Of course, ZHR rates are only observed under perfectly dark conditions. With the nearly Full Moon and the usual issue of light polluted skies, the actual observed rate was much lower.
Obs Date(UT) Time TOT SPO NTA STA ORI EGE LMI OCU SSA OUI SAL3 2010-10-23 04h 47m 26 5 0 2 18 1 0 - 0 0 ALLS 2010-10-23 11h 17m 25 5 2 0 15 3 0 - - - SAL3 2010-10-22 03h 38m 9 2 1 0 5 0 0 - 0 1 ALLS 2010-10-22 04h 47m 19 6 0 0 13 0 0 - - - SAL3 2010-10-21 02h 05m 11 0 0 0 8 2 0 0 1 0 SAL3 2010-10-20 04h 46m 35 9 1 2 20 1 0 1 0 1 ALLS 2010-10-20 04h 23m 16 3 1 0 9 2 1 - - - SAL3 - SALSA3 camera in Tucson (Carl Hergenrother) ALLS - Near all-sky camera in Tucson (Carl Hergenrother) VIST - Visual observations from Tucson (Carl Hergenrother) SDG - Camera in San Diego operated by Bob Lunsford Time - 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) ANT - Antihelions NTA - Northern Taurids STA - Southern Taurids ORI - Orionids EGE - Epsilon Geminids LMI - Leonis Minorids OCU - October Ursa Majorids SSA - Sigma Arietids OUI - October Ursa Minorids
The Transient Sky - Comets, Asteroids, Meteors 