Red Eye Flyers Oct 21-22...Meteor Shower Alert...

Rotten Apple #1 · Post by **Rotten Apple #1** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 4:28 pm

I am so excited. I fly YVR-YYZ tomorrow night. I'll be radio guy.

Bits of Halley's Comet to Rain Down Sunday Morning
Friday , October 19, 2007

By Joe Rao

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A junior version of the famous Perseid meteor shower is scheduled to reach its maximum before sunrise on Sunday morning, Oct. 21.

This meteor display is known as the Orionids because the meteors seem to fan out from a region to the north of Orion's second brightest star, ruddy Betelgeuse.

Weather permitting and under very dark skies away from light pollution, skywatchers could see several meteors per hour. Rates will be significantly lower in cities and suburban areas.

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Interestingly, this year, brilliant Mars is nearby and the apparent source of these meteors, called the radiant, will be positioned roughly between Mars and Betelgeuse.

When and where to watch

Currently, Orion appears ahead of us in our journey around the Sun, and has not completely risen above the eastern horizon until after 11:00 p.m. local daylight time.

Expect to see few, if any Orionids before midnight — especially this year, with a bright waxing gibbous Moon glaring high in the western sky.

But moonset is around 1:30 a.m. local daylight time on Sunday, and that's a good time to begin preparing for your meteor vigil.

At its best several hours later, at around 5:00 a.m. when Orion is highest in the sky toward the south, Orionids typically produce around 20 to 25 meteors per hour under a clear, dark sky.

"Orionid meteors are normally dim and not well seen from urban locations," said meteor expert Robert Lunsford, adding, ". . . it is highly suggested that you find a safe rural location to see the best Orionid activity."

According to Lunsford, Orionid activity has been increasing noticeably since Oct. 17 when they were appearing at roughly five per hour in dark-sky conditions.

After peaking on Sunday morning, activity will begin to slowly descend, dropping back to around five per hour around Oct. 26. The last stragglers usually appear sometime in early to mid Nov.

Halley's Legacy

In studying the orbits of many meteor swarms, astronomers have found that they correspond closely to the orbits of known comets.

The Orionids are thought to result from the orbit of Halley's Comet; some of the dust which has shaken loose from this famous object as it runs its gigantic loop from the Sun out to Neptune, ram our atmosphere to create the effect of these "shooting stars."

There are actually two points along Halley's path where it comes relatively near to our orbit.

One of these points corresponds to early May and causes a meteor display that emanates from the constellation Aquarius, the Water Carrier.

The other point lies near the late October part of our orbit and produces the Orionids.

In May we meet the "river of rubble" shed by the comet on their way outward from their nearest approach to the Sun, while in October we encounter the part of the meteor stream moving inward toward the Sun.

The meteors are moving through space opposite or contrary to our orbital direction of motion.

That explains why both the Aquarids and the Orionids hit our atmosphere very swiftly at 41 miles (66 kilometers) per second — only the November Leonids move faster.

Another distinguishing characteristic that the October Orionids share with the May Aquarids is that they start burning up very high in our atmosphere, possibly because they are composed of lightweight material.

This means they likely come from Halley's diffuse surface and not its core.

What to expect

Last year, there was an unexpected surprise when the Orionids put on a display more worthy of the Perseids.

Observers saw meteors falling at double the normal rate, or 40 to 50 per hour. In addition, many Orionids were much brighter than normal; a few even rivaled Venus in brilliance.

Two meteor researchers, Mikaya Sato and Jun-ichi Watanabe of Japan's National Astronomical Observatory, recently announced in a paper released by the Astronomical Society of Japan that the unusual concentration of large particles that produced last years Orionids, were probably ejected from Halley's Comet almost 3,000 years ago and are being held together by interactions with Jupiter about every 71 years.

Apparently, there may also have been unusual Orionid activity during the years 1933 through 1938, so perhaps after an absence of seven decades this concentration of comet material has returned, implying another rich Orionid display might be in offing this year.

The only way to know is to step outside just before the break of dawn on the morning of Oct. 21 (try the mornings of Oct. 20 and 22 as well). Almost certainly, you should sight at least a few of these offspring of Halley's Comet as they streak across the sky.

Copyright © 2007 Imaginova Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Four1oh · Post by **Four1oh** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 5:30 pm

SWEET! I'll be the YEG-YHZ redeye tommorow night!

neophyte · Post by **neophyte** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 8:00 pm

Aside from more direct routings, quiet radios and meteor showers, what are the benefits of red eyes? Why do some love them and some not?

WJ700 · Post by **WJ700** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 8:06 pm

neophyte wrote:Aside from more direct routings, quiet radios and meteor showers, what are the benefits of red eyes? Why do some love them and some not?

Well.... out of the four posters in the thread, all 4 of us have kids. Meaning, you'll never sleep before one if leaving the home to do one.

410 and jonny are just nuts I guess, cause I hate em'. I'm sentenced to the YYZ-LAS-YYZ redeye 4 times in 6 weeks.

Four1oh · Post by **Four1oh** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 8:18 pm

hmm, I don't recall saying I liked Redeyes... they're just a fact of the job. I've had worse... far worse. I don't mind because i'm a commuter, and if that's what it takes to avoid the pain in the ass and cost of overnighting in YYC, then I'm ok with doing them once in a while. I guess I'm still young enough, that I still recover after a week or 2.

WJ700 · Post by **WJ700** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 8:58 pm

I know they are part of the job; I'm just being cynical as I'm still in recovery today. I gave away my pairing on the 21st... but if I were up there with you guys I'd choose sleeping anyway.
I'd give the Helm over to Chewbacca for the journey through the asteroid belt and I'll catch Zzzzz's.

invertedattitude · Post by **invertedattitude** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 10:24 pm

Of course it's absolute overcast here now.

Four1oh · Post by **Four1oh** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 10:49 pm

WJ700 wrote:I know they are part of the job; I'm just being cynical as I'm still in recovery today. I gave away my pairing on the 21st... but if I were up there with you guys I'd choose sleeping anyway.
I'd give the Helm over to Chewbacca for the journey through the asteroid belt and I'll catch Zzzzz's.

I AM chewbacca! Or was it samsquamch?

Rotten Apple #1 · Post by **Rotten Apple #1** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 7:02 am

I will have to disappoint my four year old when he wakes up; woke throught the night every couple of hours and peeked through the window to see if we had good viewing conditions, but no go: overcast in the Okanagan.

Still pumped about tonight.

410, how about keeping track of the meteors you see in a given time period...30 minutes or an hour let's say. We'll compare notes tomorrow.
Like last week, Orion will be rising towards the later part of the night and that's where the meteors should radiate from (moon will be down at roughly same time).

tonysoprano · Post by **tonysoprano** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 7:11 am

Came out of the pub last night, saw a whole bunch of falling stars, meteors and even the odd falling human from the sky. Geatest show on earth. Just another Saturday night in Ontario.

Rotten Apple #1 · Post by **Rotten Apple #1** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 7:29 am

Aside from more direct routings

Gave up on asking for directs etc last year some time. Fancy dispatch computer has it all figured out.

twinpratts · Post by **twinpratts** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 4:40 pm

'Aside from more direct routings, quiet radios and meteor showers, what are the benefits of red eyes? Why do some love them and some not?'

I like 'em since it affords me most time that day, at home with the kids, and the least time in hotel on a pairing (other than a single day, of course). I just try and stay on YYC time, and it works out well.

beaconfinal · Post by **beaconfinal** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 1:58 am

I saw quite a few tonight from the ground.. pretty impressive to say the least!

beaconfinal

confuzed · Post by **confuzed** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 10:13 am

I was wondering about that this morning...I was on descent into YHZ around 6am and saw quite a few of the meteors. Was pretty cool seeing one after the other. I haven't seen them like that since my days up in NWO.

Four1oh · Post by **Four1oh** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 10:58 pm

I was a bit dissappointed, not bad, but I was expecting bigger/better. So many of them were so dim, that if you weren't looking right at the spot you'd miss them. There were a few bright ones though, and that was pretty cool. And, they came in waves... nothing for 5-10 minutes, then wham, 3 at once, then a few more right after.

That 'star' or 'planet' that rose around midnight from the east south east was incredibly bright though, flashing red and green and white... looked so much like an airplane it was ridiculous! Then later, in the northeast, a planet rose, but we couldn't decide if it was Mars or Venus. It was very red when low on the horizon, then turned white as it rose. I don't know if the red was the planet or our atmosphere.

Any budding astronomers out there?

invertedattitude · Post by **invertedattitude** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 4:49 am

My grandfather was/is an astronomer.

Told me the color (mostly red usually) "flashing" of planets/stars is the light difracting (I think thats the right word) through the atmosphere when they are low on the horizon and the light waves are cutting the atmosphere at an odd angle relative to your line of sight.

I could be completely wrong though, it's been 15 years since he taught me all this.