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Space Science

Leonid Meteor Shower Observation Tips 117

Posted by Hemos from the watch-the-skys dept.
mao che minh writes "For those of us around the world planning on stepping out and witnessing the Leonid meteor showers next week (November 19th), NASA is running an article that will help you maximize your meteor shower viewing enjoyment, straight from the experts' mouths."
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Leonid Meteor Shower Observation Tips More

Leonid Meteor Shower Observation Tips

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  • my tips (Score:3, Funny)

    by Brian Boitano ( 514508 ) on Friday November 15, 2002 @06:36AM (#4675860) Journal
    "make sure you are looking at the sky"
  • Ahh... Nothing like a hot meteor shower in the morning. =)

    Of course, having to get up at 4 am isn't really my daily routine...
    • Yes, but not going to bed until 3am PST *is* my daily routine!

    • Re:Refreshening. (Score:2, Interesting)

      by EmagGeek ( 574360 )
      I get up at 3:30AM to run 10k before going to work at 5... every day :) I should have a nice view that morning!

      The last Leonid shower I saw was in 1998 while I was doing some work at the Woodbury Research Facility [gatech.edu]... It was quite a good show and since this place is in rural Georgia, it was extremely dark... I tried looking at last year's shower, but the light situation in suburban Philly is horrible..

      One other fun thing that I've found to look at is occultation around the edge of the moon. On occasion, mountains on the moon obscure stars passing near the horizon for a few minutes. With a small scope, it's really cool to watch them disappear and reappear along the edge. You can find occultations listen in Astronomy Magazine [astronomy.com]...

      Happy Viewing...

    • stay up.

  • What age? (Score:3, Funny)

    by HiQ ( 159108 ) on Friday November 15, 2002 @06:38AM (#4675866)
    ... to the constellation Leo the Lion
    Be sure to watch out for Harry the Horse, Donald the Duck, Cleo the Camel and Tux the Penguin while sipping your cocoa!
  • CowboyNeal, A bottle of Vodka, A telescope, and a beowulf cluster.
    • yeah...a beowolf cluster...you should see my server room; it's one of the messier obj^H^H^H^H places i've ever seen!

    • Ok..a beowolf cluster, vodka and cowboyneal are all reasonable and make sense...but why a telescope? Do you think you're going to be able to see the meteors through the telescope? They move sort of fast you know...also, you would need one heck of a wide angle lens...

      A camera is more of an essential than a telescope..and I don't mean for taking pictures of your nights debauchery with cowboyneal, I'm talking about taking pictures of the meteors.

  • Attack (Score:2, Funny)

    by BlackHawk-666 ( 560896 )
    Chant the mantra - "this is not a preliminary missile attack".

  • time (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    So the europeans should just get up 4:00 UT.
    WTF is ut. Somebody give me the CET time.

    • Re:time (Score:5, Informative)

      by billybob2001 ( 234675 ) on Friday November 15, 2002 @06:51AM (#4675895)
      From the article (effort required to read)

      No matter where you live, the hours between 11:00 p.m. on Monday and dawn on Tuesday are going to be the best for spotting Leonids."

      • Re:time (Score:3, Interesting)

        by billybob2001 ( 234675 )
        ...and as it's "No matter where you live" it might have been better to quote local time rather than UT, Internet time or Stardate.

      • Re:time (Score:5, Informative)

        by clickety6 ( 141178 ) on Friday November 15, 2002 @08:20AM (#4676063)

        But if you want to know the peak time when thinsg should (hopefully) be at their best, try :

        http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/estimator.html

        It's a java applet where yu can select your location and get the time of the peak (although for some reason there are no cities in Germany!)
      • > No matter where you live, the hours between 11:00 p.m. on Monday and dawn on Tuesday are going to be the best for spotting Leonids."

        I normally understand "No matter where you live" as "No matter where you live in the US" as too-many US sites do not care about the non-US readers

        • You see the most meteors when the side of the earth you are on is facing into the direction the earth is travelling. No matter where you are, the meteor show will start around 11 local time, and finish around dawn local time.
          -aiabx
          • For my local (Germany) the meteor shower started at 4am and lasted until 5.30am. Nothing to do with 11 local time.
            • The Leonids have a very short peak period which will be at the same time everywhere. Your 5am peak is probably the same as my 11pm peak. However, the non-peak meteors will start to arrive close to local midnight, when your side of the earth starts to face into the direction of the earths travel (toward Leo) and stop around dawn, when you can't see them any more.
              -aiabx

    • Re:time (Score:3, Informative)

      by tigress ( 48157 )
      UT is Universal Time, aka GMT.

  • Whoa, time to go to bed. (Score:4, Funny)

    by supun ( 613105 ) on Friday November 15, 2002 @06:50AM (#4675889)
    I thought the title said "Leonard Nimoy Shower Observation Tips" I could feel my eyes trying to rip themselves from my sockets. Whew, thank god for second glances.

  • Light Pollution (Score:5, Informative)

    by Big Mark ( 575945 ) on Friday November 15, 2002 @06:51AM (#4675893)
    Quote:

    ""Try to get away from city lights," he suggests. "The darker the sky, the more meteors you'll see."

    Of course, if you live anywhere near a city your view will be obscured by that pleasant glow of street lamps. You'll HAVE to make a trip into the countryside to see anything but the brightest of meteors. I don't mind the Moon, as it's something to look at with binoculars during quiet bits of the storm.

    If you're in the UK, The Campaign For Dark Skies [dark-skies.org] is an interesting site about this problem.

    This image, showing the entire world's wasted light, is also intriguing. Think of all the money wasted because idiot government officials allow such wastage.

    • Re:Light Pollution (Score:5, Informative)

      by gleam ( 19528 ) on Friday November 15, 2002 @07:00AM (#4675920) Homepage
      A side note, the Leonid Shower this year is actually a Storm.

      North America, at about 4:30AM of the 19th is about the peak time to watch for it.

      I've seen estimates ranging from 2,000 to 7,000 hits per hour, and some have even said 10,000 or (during the really high times) up to 1,000 per minute.

      So we aren't talking a little tiny shower this year.

      Next time we'll have a storm like this will be in about 36 years, so you should want to check it out when you have the chance.

      It's a shame the moon is nearly full that night, though.

      Anyway, even if you can't go too far out of the city, just standing in the shadow of a tall building will give you a decent view, given the sheer magnitude of the storm.

      -gleam

      • Re:Light Pollution (Score:5, Informative)

        by Kaz Riprock ( 590115 ) on Friday November 15, 2002 @07:47AM (#4675996)
        Next time...in about 36 years...

        Unfortunately, the next time Temple-Tuttle (the source of the debris that we're watching) comes through in 30 or so years, it will not be passing close enough to leave a good amount of dust in our orbital path to create the kind of storm we're treated to this year. In fact the next pass after that still won't be close enough. It won't be until 2098 before it passes within .0062 AUs (close enough to get a storm in the following year or three).

        All of this information and some great viewing suggestions and times are attainable in a really good article at Sky and Telescope [skyandtelescope.com].

        • This year's showers are attributed to the 1767 and 1866 apparitions of Temple-Tuttle. The proximity of the comet to Earth has little to do with the intensity of the storms. Earth intersects the heaviest portions of the dust streams around the same time that the comet nears perihelion. But the dust streams that the Earth actually intersects were laid down during perihelion passages that occurred decades or even centuries earlier.

          So the distance of the comet from Earth at its next perihelion is no predictor of the intensity of the storms that may occur then.
      • North America, at about 4:30AM of the 19th is about the peak time to watch for it.

        important point! that, and the moon issue It's a shame the moon is nearly full that night, though. ...is why I'll be doing my observing closer to sunday or monday if the weather cooperates...

      • Anyway, even if you can't go too far out of the city, just standing in the shadow of a tall building will give you a decent view, given the sheer magnitude of the storm.

        In Chicago, the sky is usually completely red all night. Hopefully the far suburbs will fare a little better.
      • A meteor storm is when it exceeds 2000 per hour. This is actually not an HOURLY figure however, for even meteor storm conditions are relatively brief periods of time. This is why you will see forcasts given in 15 minute segments. NASA forcasts by city can be found here: http://www.space.com/spacewatch/leonids_lowdown_02 1101.html [space.com].

        Even the HIGHEST prediction is "only" 1200 per hour. While this is a superb shower, it does not qualify as a storm. The moon, as noted, will wash out the fainter ones.

        Meteor prediction is a young and inexact science, so don't plan on setting your alarm for the exact time of the peak and then seeing it. Go out early and stay late!

        Great page here at space.com [space.com].

        I'm hoping for CLEAR SKIES!

        • The higher ends of the predictions came from an astronomer at Adler Planetarium here in Chicago. He may very well have been exaggerating for effect, but it's hard to tell.

          http://aio.arc.nasa.gov/~leonid/1998.html

          Check that for the ZHR for the overall US..

          Quote: "Two Leonid storms are expected with rates higher than in 2001, when the Zenith Hourly Rate peaked at 1,300 /hr for the USA peak. Beware: the next Leonid storms are not due until 2099!"

          The great leonid flux estimator at http://aio.arc.nasa.gov/~leonid/estimator.html offers a prediction of 3000/hr at the peak time of 4:20 am CST (for chicago, in the countryside, like at a state park or something)

          so although I think 10,000/hr is definitely a very, very high estimate for a single area, it's well within the Asher predictions for ZHR at about 4:20AM CST

          -gleam

    • Re:Light Pollution (Score:3, Interesting)

      by fjordboy ( 169716 )
      I watched the meteor shower last year (which was incredible btw..) from the village of Trout Run, PA. Trout Run is in north central PA, about 20 miles from Williamsport (the closest town of any size). Trout Run has a gas station and a restaraunt that are open 24 hours a day, so they have normal "gas station" type lights. However, I was watching the meteor shower from camp susque [susque.org] which is about 4 miles down the valley, and it isn't a straight valley either...anyhow, we took a lot of pictures [peterswift.org] and in several of them, there is a SIGNIFICANT glow from the SINGLE gas station that is over 4 MILES away and partially obscured by mountains! It blew my mind..I didn't realize how bad light pollution was until then...I don't think there is any place in the US where you can get a truly dark sky.
      • Being a natitive to Roaring Branch, PA (if you've spent much time on Rt 14, you know where that is) I can vouch that there is quite a glow, but i believe the glow you were observing was not from the gas station, but instead from the city of Williamsport.

        Trust me on this one... i was watching the Leonid shower last year as well. (unfortunately, i'm not much of a photographer.)

        if you're a naitive to the area, or will be back, drop me a line cnj110.nospam@nospam.psu.nospam.edu

        just remove the spam protection

        • I'm definitely a native of the area, and I have a whole lot of friends from the roaring branch area (the whole brannaka clan!). I can't believe someone from roaring branch reads slashdot *grin* Actually..the light was definitely from trout run, williamsport would have been more south, it was coming nearly directly from the west..right down the valley. If you look at the pictures, you can tell (ok, if you knew where the pictures were from, and what direction they were taken in you could tell). Williamsport would have been about 70 degrees to the left (south) in most of the pictures...though you can still definitely tell where williamsport is at night.
  • I originally read the title as "Leonard Maltin Shower Observation Tips". (cringe)

    It's amazing the different ways your mind punishes you for the previous night's Guinness binge.

  • Again? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by kitsook ( 516402 ) on Friday November 15, 2002 @06:51AM (#4675897)
    Is it going to be another meteor shower in a scale that we are "not going to see for several hundred years"?
    • In a rare moment of candor, Jack "The StarHustler" Horkheimer admitted that this metoer shower would be "quite disappointing." "I think I'll just watch West Wing," he admitted.

  • the 18th? (Score:3, Funny)

    by trans_err ( 606306 ) <ebenoist.gmail@com> on Friday November 15, 2002 @06:53AM (#4675903) Homepage
    Wasn't the shower supposed to be on the 18th when this originally posted or did one of NASA's borked computers realize the universe stopped again and they failed to tell us?

    I am SO on to them.

    • Now that NASA have adopted SI units for measuring distances just like the rest of the civilised world has done for the last century or so, especially for scientific projects like, say, Mars landings, they have just started to tackle the problem of using SI units for measuring time. Those newfangled seconds, hours and days! *grumble*

      I bet they wonder which month is the 19th when they see the date correctly written as 2002-11-19 or 19/11...

      ;)

    • Wasn't the shower supposed to be on the 18th

      The Leonids shower usually peaks at about that time every year. This year though, there are a couple of storm peaks predicted.

      The storms are caused by specific trails of ice and dust left by the comet, and the Earth is expected to go near those trails slightly later than the regular Leonids shower peak. This is why the predictions you're hearing are slightly later than the regular date.

  • NASA (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    This advice comming from the experts who CANNOT convert Metric and Imperial measurements.
    • This advice comming from the experts who CANNOT convert Metric and Imperial measurements.

      Ahemm, this advice comming from those claiming to have landed on the moon. :)

  • All very good advice (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dr Thrustgood ( 625498 ) <ThrustGood@spamoff.atari.co.uk> on Friday November 15, 2002 @07:27AM (#4675965)
    But, alas, it misses out the vital ingredients:

    1) Invite ladyfriend along
    2) Bring blankets (can get a bit chilly)
    3) Bring whisky (see 2)
    4) Remember rehearsed "Isn't it beautiful, the depth, the colours. Alas, still not a match for your eyes" lines and other "romanticisms"
    5) Bring protection (see 1 + 4 + 3)

    You know it makes sense.

    • Re:All very good advice (Score:4, Funny)

      by clickety6 ( 141178 ) on Friday November 15, 2002 @08:12AM (#4676049)
      At last somebody has filled in the plan:

      1) Invite friend to geek event

      2) ???????

      3) Get lucky!

    • not too sure about number 4, it sounds a bit corny. I'd go for: "This is nice. Wanna get nekkid?"

      Make sure she's on top though, otherwise you'll miss the shooting stars.
      • not too sure about number 4, it sounds a bit corny. I'd go for: "This is nice. Wanna get nekkid?"

        Let me guess... you aren't in the company of females very often? :) Cheesiness (and that really isn't as bad as it could be) always goes down a treat, especially when accompanies by a load of boozebeforehand. Oh, and if you're looking at the shooting stars. Well. Ahem. Best not to mention what shooting she'll be viewing.

  • Very Cool (Score:3, Funny)

    by ArmedGeek ( 562115 ) on Friday November 15, 2002 @07:37AM (#4675982) Homepage Journal
    I try to never miss one. Grab yer girl and go out and watch. In the past it's not failed to get me laid. Unfortunately, this year I'm going to be at work, so I'll get to watch, but without female companionship.
    Everyone feel sorry for me now.
  • There are only three things you need to do for watching the Leonids (that is, other than having clear weather):
    1. Coffee, hot and lots of it
    2. Warm clothes and sleeping bags
    3. Get the hell away from the city
    Jack William Bell, long-time meteor freak
  • Every time I used to hear about meteor showers I would get excited. Then I would stay up (would stay up coding anyway) for it and what do you see? nothing. I'm guessing that like all the other apparent showers, we're going to see nothing spectacular. Remember, go out any night of the week and you'll see meterorites.

    Btw, this we know is going to happen, Australia and Africa are going to get a partial solar eclipse on the 4th of December. http://www.assa.org.au/observing/eclipse2002/

    • Then you probably didn't go out last year... I went outside my apartment for about 45 min's last year and I saw 70+... some were brights ones as well.

      Don't give up!
    • We stand a good chance of seeing some fireballs, which might be even more noticible due to the moon's generally washing out the weaker stuff. Don't give up on them. Bring cameras and tripods and friends - you'll feel like a goof if something blows up and you miss it!
      • lol .. in point of fact, when halley's comet came around and I was in perfect position to see it (Australia). I was around 10 years old and fell to sleep for 3 days straight (iirc) before it came around at like 2am. The next day at school there were all these halley's comet pictures newspaper cutouts in class but I missed it. I made a pledge that in 70 or so years when it comes around again I won't miss it.

        Anyway, I don't think leonids hits Australia but I better take a look.

    • Hey, SystematicPsycho, I don't know where you live, but if you can go out every night and see a meteorite, damned if I wouldn't MOVE! Meteorites are what meteors become if they make it to the Earth's surface. I'd find it extremely disconcerting if they started showing up in my neighborhood on a regular basis. }:~)
  • a meteor cluster.

    made you look :p
  • Hey, they left off the most important step for me! Get out of the Pacific Northwest, go somewhere you can see the sky.

    Oh well, I can always pretend the raindrops are comets.


  • This time im being prepared!

    A Rocket just like Hans Zarkov made.. just incase these babies get too close!

    Oh sure, your laughing now.. im not sharing my moon rocket with anyone!

  • "You'll never see anything if you go out on the wrong day," deadpans Cooke.

    "It can get cold in November at 3 o'clock in the morning."

    "Try to get away from city lights," he suggests. "The darker the sky, the more meteors you'll see."

    Gee, thanks. I never would have guessed.

  • You would think... (Score:3, Funny)

    by croftj ( 2359 ) on Friday November 15, 2002 @08:28AM (#4676078) Homepage
    these things would happen in the middle of the day so we didn't have to wake up at three in the morning to see them!

  • meteors (Score:3, Interesting)

    by fjordboy ( 169716 ) on Friday November 15, 2002 @10:00AM (#4676420) Homepage
    I saw the shower last year and it was incredible. We saw hundreds if not thousands of meteors. At some points, you couldn't look anywhere in the sky and *not* see a meteor. It was truly amazing. If this year is half as good as last year, it should be pretty cool.

    However, no matter how many meteors there are and how often they come, it seems to be VERY difficult to capture them on film. Using an SLR camera with a cable release and a tripod, a friend and I used something like 5 rolls of films and probably only got 15-20 usable pictures that had meteors in. (You can check them out here at peterswift.org [peterswift.org]. And they weren't joking about light pollution either! We were pretty far out in the country in North Central PA at Camp Susque [susque.org], but even the lights from a tiny town with one gas station and a restaraunt really made a lot of the pictures have big bright spots (and the town/village was about 3-4 miles away!).
    • Here's my photo attempt [boonedocks.net] from last year.

      Use fast film and a large aperture lens to try to get photos of single meteors with stars as points. Use slower film (and longer exposures) to get star trails. That might be easier since you never know when the meteors will appear (last year I only saw about 100/hour for a couple hours).

      You also have to watch out for dew condensing on your lenses. It might also be a good idea to keep your camera bag in the garage for a couple hours to let the camera and lenses cool down.
      • excellent suggestions. if your camera runs on lithium batteries, be sure you bring one or two extra ones, and keep em in your pants. they batteries like to poop out in the cold.

        i shot TMAX-100 at 100, with f3.5 lens at 28mm, and kept the sucker open for 15 minutes for each exposure-- got wunnerful trails, but only ONE nice-lookin meteor (dumb camera was pointed in the wrong direction). only got a couple of usable shots, as i only brought one battery (which is why i remind you of the above suggestion).

        it's very important to have a tripod! and don't futz with your camera! if you've got a shutter release, that's great too.

        here's my obligatory photo of the leonids from last year [bellatlantic.net]. one nice one, several very faint ones.
  • It has been cloudy for days now, and I don't expect it to get any better.

    Oh, and btw, my .sig is a joke. You can't take it seriously as I think some have.

  • Anyone know where the ISS is when the Leonids start coming in?

    The sat operators have been told to close down non-essential systems and to reorientate themselves to present a minimal profile to the showers.

    • Re:ISS? (Score:2, Informative)

      by hottoh ( 540941 )
      Yes. These folks seem to:

      http://spaceflight.nasa.gov

      http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/S Sa pplications/Post/SightingData/sighting_index.html

      So happens they are viewable Tuesday morning from KC MO.
  • NASA has posted a little Palm OS applet to aid people who want to try counting the meteor rate.

    You can find it here. [nasa.gov]

    And information about it over on Space.com [space.com].
  • I think I'm going to skip this one...
    My local weather forecast: [ec.gc.ca]

    Greater Vancouver: Issued 5.00 AM pst Friday 15 November 2002
    Today..Cloudy with 60 percent chance of rain. Rain developing this afternoon. High 11.
    Tonight..Periods of rain. Windy near the water. Low 8.
    Saturday..Rain heavy at times. Wind southeast 30 to 50 km/h near the water. High 12.
    Sunday..Periods of rain. Low 7. High 12.
    Monday..Rain. Windy. Low 9. High 12.
    Tuesday..Rain. Windy. Low 8. High 11.
    Normals for the period..Low 3. High 9.

    Looks about par for the course. Maybe some of you can post some nice pictures of the Leonids for me somewhere. :(
  • DO NOT look directly at the meteor shower. This is very dangerous. To do so, you will risk becoming blind, turning into a giant walking vegetable and destroying your neighbors. Remember "Day of the Triffids".
  • Wondering if anyone can tell me what equipment do I need to watch the meteor shower?
    I want to take pictures of the night.
    Any preparation is needed??
    • > I want to take pictures of the night.

      read this -- [luminous-landscape.com]
      http://luminous-landscape.com/techniques/leonide s- 2002.shtml
    • OK, here it goes:
      • a stable tripod
      • a cable release (if not, use the delay)
      • a WIDE ANGLE (20mm or 24mm)
      • A fast lens (f2.8 or better).
      • A precise film: do not use 3200iso: 100/200iso slide film is best, although that's counter-intuitive.
      Do long exposures if you are in a pretty dark area (20 minutes), no more than 5 minutes if near a city. The stars will rotate on the picture but it's no big deal.

      And here is the result [gdargaud.net] (see the shooting star on the right [gdargaud.net] of the picture ?). Pic taken in Utah.

  • Casting aside my Mod powers...

    I've seen several applications over the years that use a shortwave radio hooked up to a computer (I've seen C64 and recently a PC version) used to count the hits by meteors in the upper atmosphere. I forget the links though I'll have to do a search. Just thought I'd mention it now beforeI forget.
    Now if there was a CF card for my PDA that could do that...ahh that would be cool.
    Now wouldn't this be the true geek way instead of actually going outside?!?!
  • We're going to get a 'Storm' this year because we're hitting an old meteor tail dead-on. Every 33 years or so, the Earth will go straight through the center of the particle cloud, rather than just skimming it. Also, if you're planning on checking this out before midnight, forget it -- you have to wait till the Earth rotates into the cloud of sand-like particles. Be ready; in 1833, the storm was so intense that it looked like rain [space.com] (see pic).

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