Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks Early Tuesday Morning

GringoChapin writes in with coverage from Space.com on the Leonid meteor shower, adding "Folks from the United States will want to start watching at 0100 Pacific, 0400 Eastern, and those in Europe from 0100 local time until dawn." "One of the best annual meteor showers will peak in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday, and for some skywatchers the show could be quite impressive. The best seats are in Asia, but North American observers should be treated to an above average performance of the Leonid meteor shower, weather permitting." Sky and Telescope's coverage is excellent as usual, and they also have tips for beginning and advanced meteor observers.

impress the women with your knowledge of the skies

[Blue Shifted]

i know it sounds funny, but through the years i've found many women who are interested in watching the meteor showers with me. when i used to hang with groups of friends in san diego, i'd inform all of them about an upcoming meteor shower and invite them to go with me to a mountain (usually palomar) to watch. and more often than not, more women would come with me than men.

and then i would answer all their questions about meteors; how fast they go, how big are they, where do they come from, the comets they are associated with, why they are named after constellations, etc. And of course i'd tell them scary stories about how Betelgeuse could kill all life on earth, and show them the BEAUTIFUL Pleiades through binoculars, and before you know it, they were looking at me in a whole new light, and hey, geeks were cool!

i'm old and have a girlfriend now, and she loves meteor showers too, so i don't promote the showers with the single girls anymore, but just thought i'd throw this out there for my fellow slashdotters... Invite that girl you like to watch the show, she will probably like it!

Re:Just my luck

[maxume]

You are not terribly alone:

http://www.goes.noaa.gov/browse.html [noaa.gov]

Re:impress the women with your knowledge of the sk

[Blue Shifted]

also, bring a blanket, cause when it's cold, you might just have to share it!

You must be new here.

[Anonymous Coward]

Your suggestion involves A. Knowing women, and B. Going out of the house.

Re:Better than light pollution

[Kratisto]

There's so much light pollution in populated areas [noaa.gov] that you can hardly see anything unless you drive into the middle of the desert. It bothers me when I look up and can barely make out Orion to think that in some places you can see the Milky Way with the naked eye. Letting less light escape upward and outward where it's unneeded would have positive environmental effects (some animals are led astray by the light), and would conserve energy, but my reasons for wanting darker cities (or rather, darker city skies) are purely selfish.