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Space Science

Invaders from Space! Leonid Showers tonight. 239

Posted by chrisd from the no-it-is-not-a-ufo-you-yokel dept.
Space.Com, Astronomy Magazine and The American Meteor Society all have tons of information, viewing guides and historical perspectives for you to peruse in anticipation of tonight Lonid meteor shower. Many are predicting a once in a lifetime event, as the Earth is expected to swing through 3 debris trails laid down by Comet 55p/Temple-Tuttle. One article mentions that up to 10,000 events per hour could be in the offing. So if you feel like staying up till 2am pst (10 ut) you'll be able to check it out. I know we've been hyping this event, but, well, we are okay with this.
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Invaders from Space! Leonid Showers tonight. More

Invaders from Space! Leonid Showers tonight.

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  • Comet Porn (Score:2, Interesting)

    by the_one_smiley ( 169638 )
    For some absolutely gorgeous photographs of past Leonid showers, see the Leonid Multi-instrument Aircraft Campaign [nasa.gov].

    -The One God of Smilies =)
  • Damn!

    Me and a couple of buddies are road-tripping our way to a spot in the country far from light pollution today to catch the leonids, and its cloudy!

    Damn you weather!

    • Re:clouds! (Score:1)

      by sar ( 398 )
      Same weather here in Oklahoma. It's been clear for days, and today and tonight there are supposed to be overcast skys and possible thunderstorms, and clear again by Tuesday... Weather in the midwest always has a way of sneaking up on you at the worst times.

  • Don't lose sleep (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Yes, the peak of the shower will be 3-4am (EDT), but there should be no distinguishable difference between midnight and 4am.

    So, don't lose too much sleep (or coding time).

    • Re:Don't lose sleep (Score:5, Informative)

      by Papyrus ( 226791 ) on Saturday November 17, 2001 @02:09PM (#2578922)
      Actually, if the experts predictions pan out there will be an incredible difference in the quantity observed at midnight and the eastern US peak which is actually 0500-0530.

      For instance the four major teams that are providing rate predictions show that between 2300-0200 you might see anywhere from 4-160 meteors per hour.

      The predicted range per hour at 0500-0530 is 800-3500!!!

      Quite a difference I would say.
    • There was a HUGE difference between midnight and 4am, from my viewing location, west of Minneapolis. Almost no comparrison. I was with four other people who eventually fell asleep, and I woke them up at about 3:45, because the show was getting so good. No one fell asleep after that. It was amazing - the count was so much higher, and we saw several bolides - huge flashes, lingering tails probably 6 times in the 4:00 hour. I happened to miss the first bolide of the evening, I stood up, and looked down, just in time to miss it - but the ground was all lit up. It looked like someone had taken a picture - that's how bright it was. Nothing like that, previous to the 4:00 hour! In fact, we saw a bright one - right after dawn. Pretty amazing, when you can beat the light of the SUN. =)

  • idea for /. (Score:1, Interesting)

    by ruszka ( 456169 )
    it'd be neat if people took pictures from different parts of the world of the showers and maybe /. could put them together in a sort of gallery, listing the times of each and the various locations.. or even someone that just reads /.

    any ideas for this ?
    • Hey ruszka, please explain your nickname. Is it Polish? What does it mean?
      • it's a name i came across once on a tv show.. it belonged to a woman living in russia.. i loved the name but have no clue on its spelling.. my ex told me it was spelled this way so who knows :P
        • My real last name (it's not 'nazi') is very similar to this. That's whay I asked. I'm sure that you know that its pronounced like 'Rushka'. Your ex has the correct spelling. Although it is Slavic, I'm unsure whether it's Polish, Russian, or Czech. All three are very similar.
    • it'd be neat if people took pictures from different parts of the world of the showers and maybe /. could put them together in a sort of gallery, listing the times of each and the various locations.. or even someone that just reads /.

      Astronomers should be doing that. It's nights like tonight that they better be standing out there in the cold, freezing thier nuts (or tits) off and getting some good pictures.

      It's time they pull their own weight and do something useful for the rest of society. :-)
    • we're taking a digital cam with us and escaping the lights (3 hours till departure)
      hope we get some good shots.. dont know what the heck we're doing but we should have enough time for trial and error! :)
      western canada (brrr)
  • Ahh.. I'm looking forward to sitting under the stars away from the city enjoying the natural wonders. The admission charge definitely beats $13.

    yes.. there are some times when being a nocturnal creature has it's advantages.

  • Top Tips (Score:5, Informative)

    by Cally ( 10873 ) on Saturday November 17, 2001 @01:40PM (#2578844) Homepage
    ...from an experienced meteor observer:

    • Use a deckchair or recliner to avoid straining your neck. Without one you'll be in agony within 30 minutes.
    • If nothing much is happening when you first start looking, remember that it takes at least 30 minutes for your eyes to adapt to the darkness. Meteors tend to come in short bursts of activity, followed by a quieter patch, so give it an hour or two.
    • Don't expect the 4th of July! They're "just" ordinary shooting stars - it's just that the rates will be much much higher than normal. This also improves your chances of seeing 'bolides', aka fireballs - these are meteors that are so big that they disintegrate in a bright "terminal flash" - and persistent trains (smoke trails.)
    • Remember that you won't see much before local midnight, as the earth has to rotate so that your location is on the side of the planet moving forward in the direction of Earth's orbit.
    • If you are lucky enough to witness a major outburst, and you're an inexperienced amateur, don't worry about trying to calculate rates!
    • In general, face in whichever direction gives you the best field of view, EXCEPT directly at Leo (the contstellation that gives the Leonids the name.) This is the RADIANT, ie the location that they will appear to radiate AWAY from.
    • Don't use binoculars or a telescope - they restrict your field a view, whereas the naked eye can cover ~40% of the sky simultaneously. (You often see them best in your peripheral vision anyway.)
    • Don't give up if it's a bit cloudy. Terminal flashes lighting up clouds from behind are truly spectacular, a Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind type sight!
    • If you enjoy the experience, get into amateur astronomy - it's a fantastic hobby!



    Clear skies, and good luck everyone!

    • Re:Top Tips (Score:1, Insightful)

      by revscat ( 35618 )

      Also, it helps if you have about 5 dried grams of mushrooms [lycaeum.org]. This has always helped me to have a deeper understanding of astronomical phenomena. Seriously. Don't do this if you want to take measurements, of course. But if you just want to enjoy the sights and ponder your universal significance, then get some shrooms.

      My two bits.

      - Rev.

      • For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity or perception to exist, a certain physiological precondition is indispensable: intoxication.
        Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), German philosopher. Twilight of the Idols, "Expeditions of an Untimely Man," aph. 8 (1889).
      • Personally I found the Leonids to be most amazing, while exposing my mind to a dose of good LSD with an MDMA intro.
  • By all means, you should try to get out and see this, but keep in mind that predictions are varying wildly as to how spectacular this will be. Some early reports described this shower as big as the Leonid showers in 1966, but current predictions peg this one as 1/10th as large. So expect a good show, but don't expect your eyes to be burned out of your sockets with wonder.
  • Preferably Western Australian Time.. its 2:30am here now and the sky is black and not filled with crazy different color streaks of light :(


  • here [zeromag.com] with a bunch of
    close friends sipping schnapps and staying warm next to the bonfire up on Mt.
    Uminum in south San Jose.



  • friends in Asia -- watch for a big meteor shower! (Score:3, Informative)

    by supernova87a ( 532540 ) <kepler1@NoSpaM.hotmail.com> on Saturday November 17, 2001 @01:42PM (#2578853)
    There are actually two peaks in the meteors this year, one of them before dawn on the east coast here, and another one about 6-8 hours later which is supposed to be even bigger. People in the US will miss the second peak shower, but that means that if you're in Asia, you're in the prime viewing zone. Also, it's new moon, so there's no other light in the sky to diminish the view! Unless you live in a bright city, and then, oh well... (try to get out into the country if possible)

  • Lifetime event?!?! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I don't see why people get excited over events like this.

    The idea of getting smashed to bits by a random meteorite is unnerving enough, but knowing that the Earth is about to plunge into a cloud of rock debris is outright terrifying.

  • This is going to ROCK !

    :)
  • ... about the Leonid shower is the Armagh observatory site at http://www.arm.ac.uk/leonid [arm.ac.uk], with lots of explanations, pictures, tips and so forth. Everything you need to know.
    • I'm in the UK (Edinburgh, Scotland). I get the impression from that link that I won't be able to see much. But it doesn't really go into detail about my area. Can anyone tell me if I'll be in luck?

      Thanks.
      • No spectacular sights for us, I'm afraid. Here in Belgium, it won't be dark enough when the major outburst (18 nov, 6pm-8pm GMT+1) can be witnessed. I guess western europe is out of luck this time. A local astronomy club decided to take the next plane to China, apparently the best location to witness the event.
        • Surely you're not suggesting that there are countries in the world other than the glorious US of A!?!?!?!!?

          Trust me, China is a figment of your imagination as is Belgium, in fact you don't exist, stop contradicting our reality.

  • Get away from the light! (Score:4, Informative)

    by Man of E ( 531031 ) <i.have@no.email.com> on Saturday November 17, 2001 @02:39PM (#2579002)
    If you want to find a dark spot near where you live, the International Dark Sky Association [darksky.org] has a page of tools [darksky.org] that estimate the brightness of the night sky. You need to know your latitude and longitude for the Java applet.
    • yes, helpfully; it suggests i should observe from the middle of lake ontario.
      • yes, helpfully; it suggests i should observe from the middle of lake ontario.

        Well, if you have access to a boat, that _would_ be a great place to watch from.

        Living in South Florida for my entire life, I can say without a doubt that the greatest night skies I have ever seen were observed from a boat anchored a few miles from shore.
        • Living in South Florida for my entire life, I can say without a doubt that the greatest night skies I have ever seen were observed from a boat anchored a few miles from shore.

          Same here... however, South Florida is also neigh completely empty in the center of the state. I'm either going to head to south of Lake Okeechobee (which is where I normally go stargazing) or jump on the Beeline and sit somewhere halfway to Naples off the side of the road (zero cell phone coverage, and even the radio stations die out out there). It's also cool enough so the mosquitos have died down, and I won't be wilting in the heat.

          --br. Evan

        • [Living in South Florida for my entire life, I can say without a doubt that the greatest night skies I have ever seen were observed from a boat anchored a few miles from shore.]

          Warning: I'm familiar with lakes, not oceans.

          Was it lawful to have your lights off at night to enjoy these skies?
        • In hingsight, the best place near Vancouver would have been Wreck beach. Separated from the city by a couple of miles of University Endowment lands, then separated from the University by a 200 foot heavily wooded hill followed by ~100M of clear beach.

      • Boating can give you an extra bonus. During an intense meteor storm, calm water will reflect the trails, doubling the show.

        (Of course, the water would reflect trails even during the slowest of showers. But you're not likely to be looking down at the right moment.)

  • Conspiracy (Score:4, Informative)

    by brocheck ( 59415 ) <brocheck@satFREEBSDlug.org minus bsd> on Saturday November 17, 2001 @05:04PM (#2579450) Homepage
    Perhaps it is just me, but the first thing that I thought after reading this article was:

    This would be the perfect chance for THEM to come abduct a few people, probably rednecks, and then when people say: 'I SAW A FLYING SAUCER LAST NIGHT' the Men in Black would pat them on the shoulder and say, 'That was just the leonid meteor shower.'

    I don't know about you, but I'm going to watch the skies--WITH A GUN.

  • if at all! dammit.. we never see any of the good stuff out there! any other south african's here that are also pissed off about this?
  • According to Microsoft [microsoft.com] scientists, we are all wrong on the way the earth spins, thus the timing and viewing locations for tonight's metor shower might be off!

    Thank God we have MS to educate us.

  • Afghanistan (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by istartedi ( 132515 )

    What will it look like from there, and if it is really spectacular will there actually be people with a middle ages education thinking it's 1. another bombing run of some kind, or 2. a bad omen from Allah?

  • Here's the estimator (Score:2, Informative)

    by MagPulse ( 316 )
    http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/estimator.html [nasa.gov]

    It'll take your city or any latitude/longitude pair and give you an estimate. For my area, 1am shows about 0/hour and 4am is at over 3,000/hour.

  • I stepped out at approx 7 PM, Eastern time and not much more than 2 minutes went by before I saw one streaking towards Taurus. It covered about 10 degress over the course of what seemed like at least a second. It compared favorably to Aldebaran in brightness. Possibly it was a bit dimmer, but it was white whereas Aldebaran is orange. I live in Fairfax County, VA where the sky is full of city lights so this impresses me quite a bit. The peak isn't for several hours so I gather this bodes well for a spectacular event. Unfortunately I will be stuck here amidst the haze and skyglow all night.

    • I live in Reston. I'm heading out rt 7, to Williams Gap. There's a parking lot at the top of the mountain.
    • Well, wouldn't you know. The sky was clear until about 4 AM, then clouds came in and by 4:30 we were socked in with clouds and fog. The humidity was 100% too. Rather ironic, when you consider that we are in the middle of a drought. It was almost as if the weather conspired to deprive us. There was no rain either.

  • Amateur Astronomy and Telescope Making (Score:5, Informative)

    by goingware ( 85213 ) on Saturday November 17, 2001 @07:59PM (#2579891) Homepage
    Let me use this opportunity to plug a fascinating and intriguing hobby, Amateur Astronomy and Telescope Making.

    I made several telescopes when I was a teenager, and have recently taken up grinding glass again [geometricvisions.com] after a long hiatus. I was also pleased to find the Central Maine Astronomical Society [gwi.net] is in my area and joined last night while visiting their new observatory [gwi.net].

    Telescope mirrors can be made by hand with suprisingly simple equipment. An eight-inch diameter telescope will run you about $250, maybe less if you're creative, for the mirror kit, eyepiece, aluminizing, and mounting.

    There may be a telescope making or astronomy club in your area. A good way to find out is to subscribe to the ATM mailing list [jacksonville.net]. Another way is to follow some of these links:

    Although it's helpful, you don't need to work with a club to make a telescope. I didn't for my first two. What you will need is some books, which you can buy from Willman Bell [willbell.com] or Newport Glass [newportglass.com]. You will also need a kit that contains your mirror blank, abrasive, polishing pitch, and polishing abrasive. You can get those from Newport Glass or from Dan Cassaro [jacksonville.net]. There are other suppliers of kits as well, or if you join a club you could buy the materials from another member.

    If you don't want to build a telescope, you can buy one. The telescopes made by Meade [meade.com] and Celestron [celestron.com] are well known. You can find ads for dealers in the pages of Sky and Telescope Magazine [skypub.com], which you'll find in many bookstores.

    A large number of astronomy products may be found through the Astronomy Mall [astronomy-mall.com].

    Although the price differential for small telescopes like 6 or 8 inches is not that great between making it oneself and purchasing, the cost of purchasing really large instruments is really prohibitive, while large ones are actually affordable to make, comparable to purchasing a computer. If you start off making an 8 inch mirror, your next mirror can be much larger, say 16 inches, and amateurs commonly make mirrors from 20 to 30 inches, and I think there is a 72 inch mirror nearly complete made by some amateurs. My goal is to have a 40 inch observatory in my backyard.

    Although I've listed U.S. organizations and companies, telescope making is practiced world-wide. A while back someone from Iraq subscribed to the ATM list and asked for help obtaining a kit. There are lots of subscribers from Europe and a number from Asia and Africa. Follow the links, and maybe you'll find a club in your home town, or at least within a reasonable distance!

    I cannot describe the awe that comes from beholding the wonders of the heavens through a telescope made with one's own hands.

  • I was driving home at about 0300 GMT and I saw this flash in the sky, after ten minutes one more - a big one. And they kept dropping in, I know that we isn't as lucky as you in the states and Australia when it comes to numbers. But it still is fantastic. A clear sky and burning meteors just make me happy. Usually I don't like to be out in the cold but on a night like this 0 - -5 degrees celsius doesnät bother me.

    I can barley wait until Sunday evening for the big finale :)

    This is the stuff that makes me want to get into amateur astronomy!
  • I just returned from a night (it's now 5:43AM) of meteor-watching. Unfortunatel the radar images didn't look too good: clouded all over europe. We considered driving a few hundred miles for a while, but because that would give us much certainty, we decided to stay where we are.

    The results weren't bad: at around 1:40UT the sky cleared (it was amazing: from fully clouded to clear in less than 10 minutes) and we could watch for around 1 and a half hour. We saw a total of 60 meteors (55 being leonids) with 3 large ones (one being very spectacular).

    We in europe are in a bad position since the maximum is predicted at around 19:00 localtime (when the radiant is still below horizon), but we are going to try again tomorrow. Yes, it's cold, yes, we only see meteors for maybe an hour on an entire night, but when you see a huge meteor giving a trail that lasts for seconds .. you know it's worth it.

    The results of this expedition will be put next to our other ones, and can be found at our observatory's website [demon.nl]

  • Up here in northern Vermont is clear and cold....

    Saw a few already. around 12am... one nice bright one with a long tail... (IANAA)
  • As I'm sure many other /. readers can attest [at least all you Wolverines...] it's foggy here. Been like this for the past couple hours, in fact so much that I can not see a star in the sky. Hopefully it will clear up before peak @ 4.

    Wish all us Michiganders luck.
    • Yep... I'm from East Lansing, and I can hardly see the streetlights through the thick fog let alone meteors. Oh well, I guess I'll catch them next time ;-)
  • I Went into walmart today at about 3:30 to camp for a GameCube, and when I came out at about 6pm, the entire city of pittsburgh was covered in a thick fog. We couldn't see anything. We went into a chinnese buffet (once we found the stripmall) and came out 3 hours latter and it was even THICKER. We Couldn't see WalMart, and everyone who knows what wallmart is knows they are Big. Now it's past midnight and I can't even see the damned telephone poll accross the street. Pittsburh got screwed outta this one.
    • Ugh... we just drove up to Mt. Washington... thick fog :-(. There aren't any higher mountains around here either :(
  • http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/leonids/ it starts mid morning here in the US so I know what I'll be doing when I get up!
  • It's 1:35 in the morning and the news say it's around 4 hours from now. Now, here in New York city, there are buildings blocking my view, including my own.

    My dad was enthusiastic at first, but the news of the time brought him down. Yes, Central Park would be a good place to go, but I doubt I'll try to camp there in the middle of the night. But that's the only lawn / clear site I know of. Anyone have another one?
  • Up here in the NY mountains, its already getting pretty busy in the last half hour. So far I've counted about 40, and oddly enough, most were small bolides (big, and slow, enough to leave a grey smoke trail, but not quite 'fireball' material). So far, if the peak estimation is correct, then it looks on track to being as, or more, spectacular as predicted.

    Lets just hope they got the peak right (they have estimated the wrong peak time in the past), and this is the start of the bell curve on NASA's rate graph :)

  • Toledo is socked in with pea soup fog right now. So much for that meteor shower....

  • I stepped out at 0145 CST and immediately saw a sucession of meteors that left dim green trails and a number of streakers, many of which streaked right across Orion. Now, even without letting my eyes properly adjusting to the light but keeping a count as to as many as I could see I would estimate the rate over 45 minutes of observation as somewere in the range of 30-40/hour. Not bad so far!

    I'll reply to myself as I go out later...

    -AP

  • Owl's Head, Maine [midcoast.com] has occasional clear times. It was beautifully clear much earlier in the night, long before the shower. Then it was thickly clouded. I went out just now (3:30 am local time, I think that's 8:30 GMT) and it was mostly clear, but clouded up in the 15 minutes I watched. During that time I saw a number of moderately bright meteors, many that left trails, but no bolides.

    I'm going to wake my wife up at 4:15 or so for the peak, and hope it clears again!

  • Hello! Great night for watching here...crystal clear and very calm, very good viewing from Atlantic shore! So far, estimated rate as of 0200 - 0400, 40+ per hour.
  • At a bit before 4AM in Ohio, I saw several meteors within about a minute and a half - with unadjusted eyes, and a well-lit garage behind me.

    More interesting to me than the fireballs in the sky, however, is their (apparent) effect on FM broadcast radio.

    Since around 8PM, I haven't been able to listen to local radio stations with any clarity - they're all being stepped on by something else sharing the frequency. I can, however, get good reception of a few stations that typically require driving at least 50 miles away to recieve at all.

    Reflections from outer space, or strange atmospheric stuff? It -is- a lot foggy tonight...
    • It may have been caused by atmospheric ducting, but Chances are that it was actually caused by the meteor shower. I don't know all the vagueries, but VHF signals in particular are susceptible to scattering by meteor trails. Quite a few hams work meteor scatter on 2 meters (which is about half again as high in frequency as the FM broadcast band) single side band . I imagine FM would be affected similarly, however SSB is easier to work on wavering signals (the audio doesn't drop off completely.) I didn't take the rig with me, however...with a lovely wife, a nice dark beach, and a mostly clear sky, who needs the radio? :)
  • Yep, I'm giving my report at 2:00 a.m. (MST), and you wouldn't believe what I saw and heard. A drunk smashing his truck into everything (heard), and wow! a few stars. I think I saw a few bright lights flashing across the sky, too. One looked like a 737, maybe a 757, and a few commercial craft too.

    I hate living in the city.
  • Seriously. It's 4:30am here in New Jersey and the sky is crystal clear. I went out for a smoke and almost broke my neck but I caught about 4-5 trails while I was out there. Cold though. Berrr.
  • Here in Palo Alto I saw 10, all but two in pairs, seconds apart, in 10 minutes. All I could see were bright ones, mostly with green trails.

  • Report: bedford hills, NY (Score:2, Interesting)

    by dsb3 ( 129585 )
    Gee, my fingers are COLD but it was a clear and starry night!!

    I started at 04:25.

    I counted 18 by 04:30. The 100th came at 05:15. The 150th came at 05:25. I wanted to count the 200th but my neightbour had to go to work and triggered the parking lot BRIGHT light at 05:46 with a count of 197.

    I probably didn't even see 1/4 or 1/5 of them all. I (d'oh!) realized my hat (baseball cap) was obstructing the upper part of my vision (didn't notice because it was dark!) at about 5:30 so turned it around and dealt with it not keeping my head quite as warm. Also, with buildings and trees all around me (thankfully most of the trees aren't evergreen so were mostly transparent) there were large areas of the sky that I couldn't see at all.

    Not taking a chair outside was a big mistake, too. Trying to stand, stay warm AND crane your head up at the sky for over an hour wasn't that comfortable, but was well worth getting up early for!!
  • WOW!!!, My girlfreind and I stuck it out in the freezing cold from 4:20AM-5:30AM. On one of the clearest nights this season we could see far more stars than usual and knew we had a good chance for spotting some meteors. Little did we realize the show that was in store for us. I'd say we were seeing ~20 meteors a minute consistently for the entire period. There were definitely bouts with few if any followed by peaks where 5 or 6 meteors would streak the sky simultaneously. Considering the estimates were that only 500/hour would be visible if we were lucky, we must have been very very lucky, as we were exceeding those numbers by quite a bit. I can't wait to find out the final tally on last night's storm. Imagine that we were able to see so much from Brooklyn, NY... I never would have thought. Our friends in Australia are in for one hell of a show if there meets predictions.
  • It was pretty, and surprising. I am did not view with a scientific mind, but one that let me sit back and appreciate the wonder of it all.

    Perfectly clear skies up here in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

    • North Okanagan, BC. Superbly clear skies as well, and viewing from near the peak of the local ski mountain, well away from town lights.

      At the peak, we saw perhaps a half-dozen to ten bright meteors per minute, with superlative hanging trails. Some of the best cut an arc that covered well over a third of the sky. Others were so extremely bright, it was like looking into the highbeams of a car.

      A half-hour to either side of the peak we were still seeing an excellent meteor every minute or so, with bursts of meteors every once in a while.

      All in all, this was well worth the effort to view. I took along my three favourite kids, aged 6, 9, and 11. They were wowed by it all; I suspect this may have been the first time they've witnessed a reasonably good dark sky (tho' it didn't compare at all to what I've seen when out backpacking, when there's at least 200km between me and the nearest streetlight).

      Now I just hope that I'll manage to fall asleep. Otherwise, I'm gonna be a walking zombie tomorrow. Er, I mean, today. Gah.
    • Footnote: I didn't see anything I'd call "orange" or "green" in the way of tails. They were just... meteor coloured. I'm wondering if maybe this colouration thing is a subtle effect...?

  • Report from Greater Boston, MA (Score:3, Interesting)

    by martyb ( 196687 ) on Sunday November 18, 2001 @06:37AM (#2580802)

    WOW! Rarely waited more than 20 seconds between seeing meteors; saw 2 at once at least a dozen times; and a couple of times I saw 3 at once! Saw many with long, orange-colored trails. Definitely well worth it!

    Background info: Observed from 4:15 - 5:45 AM EST and saw meteors throughout that period. I was located at a state park about 20 miles west of Boston. I hopes to lessen the impact of light pollution, but could not make out the milky way. :(

    And it was COLD! About 25 degrees Fahrenheit. I was prepared with heavy thermal underwear, turtleneck, wool sweater, ski suit, two layers of heavy socks, heavy boots, wool hat, and ski gloves... and I still got cold! Glad I brought a thermos of hot coffee!

    Something on the order of 75 cars were parked in the lot and along the roadway to it, so there was a goodly number of us watching together. It was really something to hear simultaneous "Ooooo"s and "Ahhhhh"s!

  • Wow.

    I was in a plane during the shower (due to a fuck-up by ATA. `8r/ Thank you united for saving me!) flying back from Vegas. We were somewhere over the middle of the US when it started happening. It was a bit difficult because I could only see the obliques, but it was REALLY cool. I saw like 6 happen all at once in one small area. and a few that were absolutely huge! `8r)

    But, Chicago was fogged in at the time, so I'm glad I was able to see anything. `8r) yay!

  • ...stopped at the beach around 1:15AM HST (3:15 PST). About an hour after the peak, but there were still one or two a minute - that's of the bright ones, of course. I could see faint trails going by in some part of the sky about every 10 seconds or so. Drove home after a bit and was greeted stepping out of my car by one last, bright meteor with a green trail. Fantastic!

    Cyclopatra

  • report from NJ (Score:3, Interesting)

    by astrophysics ( 85561 ) on Sunday November 18, 2001 @07:11AM (#2580827)
    We had a good night too. Good weather, although there was still a
    fair bit of skyglow near the horizon. Couldn't see the Milky Way, but
    we had a view where we could lie down and see nearly all the night sky
    at once. Although juding from the oohs and aahs when I didn't see
    anything, there were some I was missing, maybe 5%, mostly from people
    standing up looking near the horizon where I wasn't paying as much
    attention since it was brighter. But most of the ones I saw were
    plenty bright. It wasn't like there were many that I could just
    barely see. Or maybe I just didn't notice those for all the bright
    ones. I think the show was still going when twilight cut us off.
    I'll know the rate once I play back the audio tape, but we
    probably saw a few hundred total. The most spectacular were the long
    bright green ones that left a trail that stuck around for several
    seconds afterwards. A few even had a second burt. Probably 10-20
    really bright ones with green tails. One was audible. Several times
    there were multiple meteors visible at once. In any case,
    it was a great show. Now need to get ready for my trip.
  • It was an amazing view from the top of stone mountain. The state park was open charging $7 at the door, but it was worth every penny. After a 1.5 mile hike up the mountain, the view was probably the best you could get within a 100 mile radius of Atlanta. The mountain got us above the worst of the light pollution but you couldn't catch much near the bright orange horizon (on all sides)

    I probably saw at least 200 separate meteors and saw 2 simultaneous several times and during one 5 second period saw 5 or 6. The predictions seemed right on target with the shower peaking 5am EST and trailing off near twilight (but still getting one every minute or so). There wasn't a cloud in the sky but the horizon was layered in well lit smog dimming out a few really low ones.

    There was one in particular that glowed bright blue-green and travelled at an amazingly slow speed for about 1 second before dying. It reminded me of a dud Roman candle firework, just sputtering its way across the sky instead of flying.

    I've gone my entire life (24 years) without ever seeing a meteor until tonight. I was always the unlucky one that was looking away when they happened by chance. I've now marked one more item off of the things to do in my lifetime. Thanks to the slashdot folk for all the details (peak time, etc) that allowed me to see this wonderful event.

  • Report from California 5:30am (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Metrol ( 147060 ) on Sunday November 18, 2001 @08:38AM (#2580897) Homepage
    Drove way outta the LA city lights up to Wrightwood. Got the families and kids together with lawn chairs, munchies, and good hot coffee. Great show! Saw quite a few leaving a serious trail of sparks behind them. Stayed up there until about 2:30am.

    Heck, on the way home passing by the lights of the San Fernando Valley (a bit north of LA) I could see them still coming down through the windshield of the car. This is with a ton of light from the city lights, not to mention the other cars.

    After everyone else went to bed I went back outside and could still see a tremendous show, again even with the lights of the city near by. It was still worth it to drive out to the darker parts as the show was just that much better.

    Next time (2099) I've got plans to bring more coffee along!
    • Brought a bunch of friends out with me in the suburbs of San Diego. Unfortunately, everything south of Los Angeles was cloudy -- even the desert! Kinda wish I'd gone to Joshua Tree. However, even with 30-50% cloud coverage (high clouds, still could see stars through some of them), it was a spectacular show. Watched from 12:30 AM PST -> 3:00 AM PST, and all 12 of us saw more than 50, probably over 100, each. That's great considering that much of the sky was clouded over.

      Sometimes there was a flurry of activity, and we would have 5 in 10 seconds; sometimes 2 at a time in different parts of the sky. Many of them were Leonids, and left big residual trails. It was the best show I've ever seen. Truly wonderful, despite the conditions. We'll see if the pictures turn out...
  • it's 5:46 in the morning on the Left Coast of America; we watched from about 1:45 until 3 when one of our members' fingers went numb (hint: mittens, not gloves, unless you're manning the shutter release!)...

    It wasn't quite a Fourth of July (major fireworks, for those not familiar) display, but it got up to one or two every few seconds there for a bit... the most spectacular one was nearly dead overhead, a triple trail in tight formation with a big flash at the end followed by a fourth along nearly the same track.... for something I know will be once in a lifetime, it was worth the drive. Now, I've got to go to bed before I face-plant the keyboard....

    Sign me,
    Sleepy in Seattle

  • Just Got Back (Score:3, Informative)

    by Quizme2000 ( 323961 ) on Sunday November 18, 2001 @09:09AM (#2580946) Homepage Journal
    I just returned from the Serria Mnts. on the CA side near Truckee, I must of seen a couple of hundred really bright flashes, and about 5 red fireballs. I also noticed that I was not alone even though I was well off the beaten path. 20 or 30 observes stopped and watched from 1230am to 330am. So now I am back at work (in SF) with no sleep and a full plate of Java programming to do. I hope many of you tore yourself away from your new xbox long enough to venture a look see. Check my URL in a few days and I will post the images I got with my night vision equipment.
  • Saw a wonderful meteor shower this morning. The location was in northern Tokyo, in a parking lot on top of a hill that used to be Inatsuke castle, and is now a residential area, in Akabane.

    Though still part of the metropolis, this made it possible to keep most street lights out of the eyes of the 8 people or so who appeared. Very good conditions, with clouds moving around the lower sky but straight up and most of the sky you could see with your eyes wide open staring high up to the South-southwest or high up to the East was available. It was so clear I thought I could see Jupiter's moons (but no binox so unlikely). Seat of my pants timing seemed to match the predictions, with the peak at 3:30 showing something like a meteor every few seconds. I viewed from 3:00 to 4:00 a.m., and it seemed there was at least a meteor every ten seconds. Some very bright ones, once or twice I saw three at a time, and once or twice very bright red ones. One or two bolide explosions at the end. Some meteor trails were very short, fast ones, there were also long dim ones and the best were big smokers.. the trail looked like a ships wake or an aircraft contrail, smoky and it would fade out to a long, dim glimmer. If you've ever seen a big white double contail in the day time, it looked very similar, sometimes with two parallel trails it seemed, and much fatter. Easy to imagine it as a big smoking trail.

    Easy to imagine bouncing radio messages off such big ones, they did resemble recent meteor movies which tells me those animators did their homework. The most impressive of all was the huge red meteor trail maybe 30 degrees long (there were a number of this length that were not red) I saw some time after 3:30, in the Northern sky about 20 degrees over Cassiopeia. I used this guide [geocities.com] to eyeball distances in the sky. Thought the red might be sunrise reflected off the trails, but then realized after seeing a greenish smoking trail soon thereafter that differences in meteor composition was a more likely cause.

  • The KampKonKrew staged KampKon 0.2 as a Leonid watching trip near Ellensburgh WA. The trip went OK despite the cold. And it was damn cold. Dan Sanderson [dansanderson.com] said it was 19 degrees at one point.

    I have seen a lots of meteor storms before (at least 20!), but nothing like what I saw around 2:45 to 3:30 Sunday morning. It was amazing! We had mostly clear skies and little light pollution. In one part of the sky alone the meteors were falling faster than I could count. Faster than one a second. This means that there were literally thousands of meteors an hour at the peak. Some of them were huge things that broke into multiple bits as they streaked across sixty and more degrees of sky. Others were dim quickies that faded almost before you could focus on them. The colors ranged from orange to green to blue. Some left colored trails and others were just burning points. Spec-Farking-Tacular! The trip was totally worth the cold and distance in my mind!

    For some pictures I took of the trip, go to the KampKonKrew Yahoogroups [yahoo.com] page and click on 'Photos' at the left and then on 'Leonid Outing'. You can also find a detailed report of the trip there titled 'Leonid Outing: The good, the bad and the lessons learned'. If you live in the Pacific Northwest and are interested in both Science Fiction and Camping you might consider joining the KampKonKrew mailing list.

    Jack William Bell

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