Orionid Meteor Shower 2022

The Orionid meteor shower is a bit of an old friend. I casually observed lots of Orionids in 1993, and since then I've tried to get out for it whenever conditions warranted. It's been a mixed bag. The Orionids produced more than double their normal rates in 2006 and 2007, and I saw lots of them in 2010 as well. Other years have featured much lower numbers, such that I add this disclaimer to my annual meteor shower outlook: I never know what to expect from this shower.

I wasn't sure how much time I was going to dedicate to the Orionids this year. Work has been a bear and my dad ended up in the hospital on October 18th. But the good thing about meteor observing is that it uses hours that we normally don't need for anything other than sleep, and in October darkness lingers late enough that it's possible to get a decent amount of sleep before waking up to do a meteor watch. The forecast was promising for Thursday and Friday mornings, October 20th and 21st. The nominal shower peak is the 21st, but activity is variable enough that the best rates could come anywhere between the 17th and 25th. One wrinkle this year was the Moon. Even though it was a waning crescent, It was bright enough on Thursday morning to be a factor. So I chose earlier hours on that morning to avoid moonlight. My observing location also features a rocky rim to the east that raises the horizon in that direction and blocked the moon for an extra hour or so.

Thursday morning I observed from 2:00 to 4:00am local (0900-1100 PDT) and saw 44 meteors in the 2 hours including 27 Orionids. Other meteors were 6 South Taurids, 2 North Taurids, a Leonis Minorid and 8 sporadics. Skies were okay with the limiting magnitude around 6.4-6.5. Mean Orionid magnitude was 2.5, and the brightest meteor was magnitude -2. The Moon was bright enough and poorly positioned enough to interfere after 4am.

Friday morning I meant to start observing at 3:00am. There wasn't a cloud in the sky when I started, but numerous cloud bands moved through and I didn't get a break until 4:10am. I did see some nice meteors among the clouds including a Leonis Minorid fireball of magnitude -4 or so. By 4:10, the clouds had moved off to the south, and though I feared a new insurgency from the north it never came. From then on I observed until 6:10am with a couple of short breaks. Skies were similar to the previous night once the clouds went away. Rates were higher with 74 meteors in 1.88 hours including 41 Orionids. Orionids were brighter with a mean magnitude near 2.0, and the last meteor of the session was a nice Orionid fireball of magnitude -3. Other meteors included 6 South Taurids, 2 North Taurids, 4 Leonis Minorids, 4 Epsilon Geminids and 17 sporadics. 

I ran my camera (Canon 90D with a lens set at 14mm f/2.8, continuous 10-second exposures at ISO 1600) and caught numerous meteors including the -3 Orionid fireball. I don't normally care for images of meteors, but when I catch a bright meteor with a persistent train that's an exception. Look at that train twist and blow away over a 3-minute period! The skies were getting bright enough that I stopped counting meteors about a minute after the fireball, so I missed another meteor that my camera captured in this sequence. In the next-to-last frame of the GIF, there is a brief "blip" below the Beehive star cluster in the upper left of the image. Looking at the original exposure, it is a meteor that came from one of two minor-shower radiants--either a Tau Cancrid or Leonis Minorid. 

Orionid fireball of about magnitude -3 at 6:09am (13:09 UT) on October 21st. A persistent train is visible for minutes afterward. Several satellites pass through along with a minor-shower meteor in the next-to-last frame (left edge near the top)

Another meteor that evaded my eyes but was caught by my camera: I took a 1-minute break to reposition myself to face away from the Moon, and during that one minute a nearly head-on sporadic meteor appeared just above Sirius. It also left a persistent train!

Short sporadic meteor leaves a persistent train at 5:06am (12:06 UT) on October 21st. Sirius is the bright star below the meteor.

The Moon was a pain, but it was also fun to see it rise Earthshine-first over the ridge. On the 20th, the Moon was occulting the star Eta Leonis, and I didn't even notice that until I looked at my planetarium program afterward.

The temperature was very pleasant on both nights, in the 40s (F). The breeze was calm. There were even a few mosquitoes out, a rarity in October.