Taurids meteor swarm!

[JB80]

There is a little write up today on spaceweather about this years Taurids with a nice image of the sheer amount of fireballs captured over night.

It seems that this year we have entered a swarm and it could be an exceptional year for viewing.

http://spaceweather.com/

"This is higher than usual activity," says meteor expert Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario. "The Canadian Meteor Orbit Radar (CMOR) is seeing stronger Taurid activity than any of the last few years. Our Southern Ontario Meteor Network cameras caught 54 Taurid fireballs from Oct 31 - Nov 4 alone, compared to 22, 18, and 32 Taurids for the entire month of November in 2014, 2013 and 2012 respectively."

These extra fireballs are coming from a "swarm" of gravelly meteoroids that weaves in and out of Comet Encke's dusty debris zone. In some years, Earth hits the swarm; in other years it misses. 2015 appears to be a hit.

"I would say with some confidence the 2015 Taurid 'swarm' is active as predicted by astronomer David Asher," adds Brown. If those predictions continue to be correct, the fireball display could carry on until Nov. 10th.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Interesting stuff. No much chance of observing them here given the forecast, unfortunately

[Davey-T]

Looks like the only fireballs I'll be seeing are ones where you light the blue touchpaper and stand back 

Dave

[Ant]

Cheers for that.

If the clouds play ball I might drag my butt off the sofa and take a look.

Ant

[Owmuchonomy]

Clear here tomorrow and Saturday so I will take a look.  I've seen a couple already particularly red/orange and bright.

[laudropb]

Very interesting. Unfortunately there is little chance of seeing much here given the weather forecast.

[allcart]

Thanks for the info Jarrod. Forecast is cloudy, so not much hope of a good catch.

[JB80]

I sat out for a little bit but it was early still and then the dew and clouds came in so gave up. I didn't see anything other than a lot of satellites.

Tonight looks better forecast wise, I think. Plus it's a Friday which is good so if the dew stays away I might set the ASI120 up with the fish eye.

[allcart]

As expected, all I got was cloud and rain. I also got a few fireworks which looked very nice under the cloud cover. Good luck for tonight Jarrod. Try and catch us a biggie.

[Pete Presland]

I read this as well with interest. There has been a few fireball images posted on the net in last week, the weather does look as if it is going to be pretty poor unfortunately though.

[JB80]

Not had any luck as far as imaging is concerned. It's been 80-90% humidity at night so by 8pm there is a film of water over everything including me.

I did see one lovely streaker of a Taurid and one that I'm sure wasn't a Taurid with a red/orange glow to it.