Greetings again all,
    I was quite surprised and pleased to find the skies beautifully clear this morning for a change and was able to take full advantage of them indeed at Matanzas Inlet.  Observing conditions were superb with no clouds and a nice sea breeze to blow the bugs away.
   The three-hour marathon session was a total joy as the pre-maximum Orionids were coming hot, bright, and heavy throughout the session and a few of the other active radiants kicked in nicely as well. I was kept quite busy indeed.  Without further adieu, here is my full report:
Observed for radiants:
ORI:  Orionids
STA: South Taurids
NTA: North Taurids
EGE: epsilon Geminids
LMI: Leonis Minorids
SPO: sporadics
Date: Oct., 19/20, 2017. Observer: Paul Jones, Location:  north bank of Matanzas Inlet, Florida, 15 miles south of St. Augustine, Florida, Lat: 29.75 N, Long:81.24W, LM: 6.5, sky conditions: clear, Facing: SE.
0330 – 0430 EDT (0730 – 0830 UT), Teff: 1 hour, clear, no breaks
18 ORI: 0(3), +1(2), +2(2), +3(3), +4(3), +5(5)
4 STA: +1(1), +2(2), +3(1)
2 NTA: +1(2)
2 EGE: +3(2)
13 SPO: +2(2), +3(2), +4(6), +5(3)
39 total meteors
6 of the 18 ORIs, 2 of the NTAs and 2 SPOs  left visible trains, most common colors were gold and yellow in the brighter ORIs.
0430 – 0530 EDT (0830 – 930 UT), Teff: 1 hour, clear, no breaks
23 ORI: -3(1), 0(2),+1(3), +2(3), +3(5), +4(5), +5(4)
3 STA: +2(1), +3(1), +4(1)
2 NTA: +1(1), +3(1)
2 EGE: +2(1), +3(1)
12 SPO: +1(1), +2(1), +3(4), +4(3), +5(3)
42 total meteors
8 of the 23 ORIs, 1 of the STAs and 3 SPOs  left visible trains, most common colors were gold and yellow in the brighter ORIs and SPOs.
0530 – 0630 EDT (0930 – 1030 UT), Teff: 1 hour, 20% clouds and twilight interference, no breaks
26 ORI: -2(1), -1(1), 0(2),+1(3), +2(4), +3(7), +4(5), +5(3)
2 STA: +3(1), +4(1)
1 NTA: +3(1)
2 EGE: +2(1), +3(1)
11 SPO: -1(1), +1(1), +2(1), +3(4), +4(2), +5(2)
42 total meteors
10 of the 26 ORIs, 1 of the STAs and 5 SPOs  left visible trains, most common colors were gold and yellow in the brighter ORIs and SPOs.
    I was very impressed with the many brighter ORIs that showed up this morning.  Usually, the ORIs are rather faint and short in duration and path length. Not this morning however, every few minutes, a bright and colorful ORI would shoot out of the radiant leaving a glittering train etched against the sky.
    Interestingly, all three of the negative magnitude ORIs I saw were seen tracking north of the radiant in almost exactly the same paths through Auriga and Perseus, shooting north from the radiant.  This is common with many major showers, interesting to speculate on what causes this phenomenon.  The Taurid radiants were active this morning also, contributing many slow-moving meteors that were very nice counterpoints to the extremely swift-moving Orionids.
   There were a few vivid spurts in activity throughout the session; however, the most dramatic one occurred at the start of the third hour!  I saw eight meteors in the first three minutes of the third hour – an amazing mix of ORIs, Taurids and sporadics all hitting one after another!  Overall, however, the ORI activity was very evenly spaced out through much of the session and the meteors were seen all over every inch of the sky with the radiant crossing the meridian.  I almost needed eyes in the back of my head to catch them all!
   I’ll be out again in the morning, weather permitting, as this show has only just begun, baby!!  Hope to have some company out there… ;o).
More later, Paul