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October 19, 2023 3:02 pm
I (Paul Jones) got out again this morning (10/19/23) to check on the progress of the 2023 Orionids from my roadside location on County Road 204 in southern St. Johns County. Once again, the skies were clear with perhaps a bit of the Canadian wildfire smoke left in the air. Both Venus and Jupiter had faint halos around them.
All told between 4:15 and 5:45 am (90 minutes), I totaled 51 meteors altogether - with 24 Orionids, 4 epsilon Geminids, 4 Taurids and 19 sporadics.. I had intended to go two hours, but fatigue, humidity and bugs began to get the better of me.
The Orionids and the sporadics were neck and neck as to who produced more, with the Orionids slightly coming out on top. But the sporadics did indeed put on a show this morning and actually outperformed the Orionids all things considered.
I had a lovely -3 sporadic near fireball dance along the SW horizon early in the watch and later on, I had not one but two spectacular earth grazers, each covering over half the sky! One of them was a -2 that left a lovely smoke train behind it and flashed several colors in its long path across the sky.
I did see a couple of nice Orionids, one at -1 and a couple at zero magnitude and about 5 or 6 of them left nice trains hanging in the sky behind them. My full hourly count was a follows:
4:15 to 5:15 - 16 Orionids, 3 epsilon Geminids, 3 Taurids and 10 sporadics for 32 total meteors.
5:15 to 5:45 (30 minutes) - 8 Orionids, 1 epsilon Geminid, 1 Taurid and 9 sporadics for 19 total meteors.
A few of us will be back out there in the morning (10/20/23 - about 4:00 to 6:30 am) at the Fairgrounds this time if anyone would like to join us Call text or email me if you would like to come along.
Paul - 904-347-7254
