1. Orionid Meteor Project
October 21, 2006
00:30-03:30

2. Background on Orionids
Come from debris from Halley's comet tail
Discovered in 1864
Linked to Halley’s comet in 1941
Can be seen between Oct 2 and Nov 7 with peak around Oct 21
Among the fastest meteors (42 miles (or 67 km) per second
20% leave trains that persist for 1 to 2 seconds

3. Estimation Time
How many meteors do you think will fall that night? Sometimes 5000 meteors fall in an hour and sometimes 20 meteors fall in an hour.
Make a guess of how many meteors you think will fall in one hour.
Write your number in the meteor sheet provided.

4. Gathering Data Work with a partner No more than 3 working together
Face East
Do NOT bunch up
Do NOT wander off
Use the data sheet provided to collect all of your observations

5. Estimations You will need to estimate cloud cover
Etc.
You will need to estimate star magnitude
Locate the constellation Orion in the eastern sky
Note the magnitude of the dimmest star you can see

6. Constellation Orion
Betelgeuse – Giant red star which may eventually go super nova!
Orion nebula – enough stellar material to create 10,000 new stars
Orion Nebula

7. Star Magnitudes
0.5
4.5
2.2
1.7
0.2
2.1
0.9
3.5
3.7
3.2
3.4
4.4
1.9

8. Star Magnitudes 4.4 4.5 What can you see?
3.7
3.2
0.2
0.5
3.4
1.7
2.2
2.1
What can you see?
The larger the number the dimmer the star.
Want to know the magnitude of the dimmest star you can see.

9. Where to Look
This represents the view from mid-northern latitudes at about 1:00 a.m. local time around October 21. Because of Earth's rotation, this view will roughly be the same for every mid-northern latitude location in the world. The red line across the bottom of the image represents the horizon.

10. Location
We will meet in Nevins Hall located at Latitude degrees North and Longitude degrees West

11. Some Interesting Observations

12. Galaxies

13. Additional Assignment
Check under the project link on my Web page for further details for more points
You are not required to do the rest of the project