Bolides

Better Later Than Never

A Bolide

Because Chris is to idle to put Scilly Stars up in the listen again section of the web page I may as well use a piece of music in the background that’s in copyright, and this week it’s the Chrome Plated Megaphone Of Destiny.

Anyway off we go, if you remember last week I told you that we have The Orionids meteor shower this months which is expected to reach peak activity this year on the 21st, 2009. This meteor shower comes from Halley's Comet, since like most comets; it leaves a dusty trail as it orbits the sun. The particles in this trail eventually become meteors as they burn up in our atmosphere.


The Orionids have been producing rather bright meteors in the recent past, so it should be a good show. The shower reached a maximum of only 20-30 meteors per hour last year, but is still a worthwhile observing event! This is because the Orionids typically are very colourful meteors, sometimes being yellow or green and sometimes even producing fireballs called bolides. Also, this year's shower will be perfectly timed with a very thin crescent Moon, so the views of the meteors won't be impeded by moonlight!

As usual, the best time to observe this meteor shower is during the early morning hours, around 2-5 AM. This is because as the Earth rotates into the sunlight, we are moving into the meteor field. This increases the number of meteors entering our atmosphere over any given location. If you rather not stay up until 2, start watching for the meteors at local dusk, and they'll really start to pick up towards 11 PM or midnight. The Orionids have a very broad peak, so any night during the week of October 18th to October 24th will do. Last weeks blog shows you where to look in Orion which is just peeping over the Eastern horizon by 11pm.

And again for early risers its still all happening in the East, Venus and Saturn are almost on top of each other in the predawn sky this week. Venus will be very bright and unmissable in a clear sky just above the horizon, shadowed by a much dimmer Saturn with Mercury following shortly behind. And on Friday they’re joined by the sliver of a very old moon. As usual there’s a guide on the blog.

If like all right minded people your asleep at sun up, there’s still Jupiter now almost due south when it first appears at about 7pm. I got hold of a 6 inch scope last week and had a look it. Because Jupiter is so low this time round the best views were at a low magnification but it was still a very clear little disc, with striping if you used your imagination, and the 4 Galilean moons were very clear. It looked very lovely in deed and its quite sobering looking at it when you think it’s a half a billion miles away. Anyway if anyone would like come and have a look give me a shout. It won’t take long, aside from the three quarters of an hour required to line the scope up.

And we mustn’t forget Mars which is still fairly dim but getting brighter, the red planet rises in the S East at midnight and will be well up in the eastern sky by 3.

That was your night sky on the 28th anniversary of the collapse of The Nepalese Stock Exchange.