Orinid's Peak This Week

From Sky and Telescope:

"The Orionid meteor shower is active in the early mornings this week, probably peaking on the morning of Wednesday the 21st. The Moon is out of the sky. This could be a good year for the shower; the Orionids show signs of a 12-year periodicity (unrelated to their longer orbital period), and 2009 is at the top of this cycle assuming it continues. Under a dark sky you might see up to 30 meteors per hour in the hours before dawn — but no guarantees."

Use the interactive sky chart to get oriented.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/skychart/

An addendum from Space.com

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/0910...y-orionid.html

And another source for information:

http://www.astronomy.com/asy/default.aspx?c=a&id=8736#

Dawn and I sat in the hot tub last night, talking, enjoying time together, and watching the sky. Dawn has become quite the amateur astronomer, and likes to watch for satelites and meteors. Last night we saw two Orionid meteors, the first of which was very bright (-4 or -5 magnitude) and it crossed about 25 degrees of the sky (the full moon covers 1/2 of a degree). We also saw a fainter one, that crosses about 30 degrees of the sky. I set up my D300 and took some sky shots, but I don't see any meteors in my initial review of the images. I'll down load them onto the computer tonight and take another look. For once, we have been blessed with awesome weather, and I can't wait to try again tonight. Let me know if any of you capture any.