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Geminid Meteor Shower 184

Posted by michael from the stardust dept.
Target Practice writes "Is it an asteroid? Is it a comet? Who cares? According to Sky and Telescope's website, 3200 Phaethon has been spewing chunks into our atmosphere for the past 150 years, and tonight, after the lan party, you can step outside at two or three A.M. and see the best light show yet - topping off at 75 meteors per hour! Be there..." Space.com has another story.
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Geminid Meteor Shower More

Geminid Meteor Shower

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  • Hmm (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Surye ( 580125 ) <surye80NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Friday December 13, 2002 @06:57PM (#4884448) Homepage
    Is it just my growing awareness, or have there been more meteor showers over the past few years then there normaly is?

    • Re:Hmm (Score:5, Informative)

      by garcia ( 6573 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @07:11PM (#4884534)
      it's growing awareness. The news would barely report it. *IF* they did it was a small blurb by the weather man or some other meaningless non-sense.

      Now we have news.google.com and www.slashdot.org to tell us every last thing that happens that is of importance to dorks...

    • Re:Hmm (Score:2, Insightful)

      by TTMuskrat ( 629320 )
      I think that there are the same amount of meteor showers as there have always been. We just know alot more about them now due to this newfangled thing called the Internet. :)

    • Re:Hmm (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 13, 2002 @07:14PM (#4884552)
      Growing awareness... and from what I've seen, a growing tendency to announce them in news and on the web.

      The same meteor showers happen about the same time every year. You can go out next year in mid-december and watch the Geminids all over again.

      The only difference between them is their intensity. The Leonids, for example, has a 33-year cycle of peak activity, which is why the last two have been pretty intense.

      I dug up this link [amsmeteors.org] with a small primer on meteor shower in general. There's probably much better ones out there.
      • Leonid was not all that impressive in my neck of the woods, but Geminid was magnificient tonight. To Leonid's credit, the moon was very bright that night.

    • Re:Hmm (Score:3, Insightful)

      by BWJones ( 18351 )
      There certainly has been an increase in the number of amateur astronomers as hardware has become more available and software for astronomy has certainly helped. Additionally, meteor showers are an easy way to experience some of the wonder of astronomy with almost no investment other than getting away from the cities and all the light polution.

      For more info on astronomy applications and discussions (with a Macintosh flavor) see Scientia et Macintosh at Applelust.com [applelust.com]

    • Not just you... (Score:4, Funny)

      by freejung ( 624389 ) <webmaster@freenaturepictures.com> on Friday December 13, 2002 @07:26PM (#4884608) Homepage Journal
      Actually, there have been more meteor showers lately. This is obviously the beginning of an attack by the dread meteoric weapons of the planet Zarquon. Of course, now that you've found them out, they'll have to come up with some other ploy...

      • Re:Not just you... (Score:4, Funny)

        by WeaponOfChoice ( 615003 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @07:36PM (#4884654) Homepage
        damn, foiled again...

        Not to worry, our next plan's a doozy - planting a maniac at the helm of the worlds most powerful country...
        • Not to worry, our next plan's a doozy - planting a maniac at the helm of the worlds most powerful country...


          No dice. Already been tried dozens of times. Never works, sorry, you'll have to come up with something else.

        • Not to worry, our next plan's a doozy - planting a maniac at the helm of the worlds most powerful country...

          [Cut to scene of UFO landing in CANADA]

          What are we doing in Canada, Brain?
          The same thing we do every day Pinky, trying to take over the world!

          -
      • Heh, I realize this is how it came off sounding, but that is not quite what I ment. I was just wondering(not stating) if there was a possibility that there were more lately because of some larger scale pattern that has them peaking now. Just as, but on a smaller scale, global warming could just be a phase in the cycle patterns.
        • I was just wondering(not stating) if there was a possibility that there were more lately because of some larger scale pattern that has them peaking now.

          Nope.

          No pattern change.

          No increase in meteors.

          Substantial increase in media attention (at least until the next fad hits).

          Trust not, those with journalism degrees.
    • There have been more advertised meteor showers in the past few years. You see, space agencies and other people who live off astronomy need to advertise this type of stuff to make a living. They also spread mass hysteria and paranoia over 'asteroids hitting the earth' to sell documentaries to the discovery channel and ask for more funding. Ever since the schumacher-levy 9 comet breaking up and slamming into Jupiter this sort of stuff has been widespread. I'm still yet to see anything "spectacular" that has ever been announced - but probably because of my location, such as meteor showers that are about to dazzle us. Every time I go out I see nothing. Remember, you can see streaks of light in the sky any night of the week.

    • Re:Hmm (Score:2, Informative)

      by 1fitz2many ( 409956 )
      I think showers seem to be surfacing more in consciousness because of the Leonids. It's been observed that every 33 years or so, they pick up in activity. This because the Earth passes through/near the parent comet's orbit soon after the comet passes near Earth's orbit, so there's probably a higher density of ice and rock chunks. The activity was supposed to peak in '99 - '00 as it did in '66.

      I've enjoyed the Geminids more than the Leonids, though, so go out to some dark skies and watch!

  • i fell for that last time (Score:5, Funny)

    by thnmnt ( 62145 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @06:57PM (#4884450)
    yeah, 75 per hour. right, like i'll fall for that again! i was the shmuck standing around at 5am for the leonids only to see maybe 10.

    find some other chump.

    • 75 per hour does not mean you will SEE 75 per hour. A lot of it depends on where you live and on the surrounding light pollution. For example where I live we could see almost no meteors but when we drove up into the mountains where the light pollution is less (and where we are closer to the meteors ;)) we could see loads.
      I guess if you haven't got any mountains nearby and live in real busy place you're pretty much stuffed.
    • That's because you didn't follow our instructions exactly.

      To see 75 meteors per hour, we explicitly said "Go out around the peak at around 2:30 am, remove all of your clothes, spread BBQ sauce across your chest, find some cute girls and cluck like a chicken."

      You forgot the BBQ part, therefore no Leonids for you!
    • Do not be tempted, young skywatcher, by the fact that your northern location provides almost twelve hours of darkness. This is foolishness, and a chasing after the wind.

      Heed my warning! Else you too will spend two-and-a-half hours each way driving out past the mountain range in hopes of the 'continental divide' effect providing clearer skies than the rest of the west coast. This too is foolishness, and a chasing after the wind.

      Seattlites, do not be fooled by such tools of deception like "sky reports", "radar images", "high pressure areas", and "friends calling who are near there"!

      Sky reports are a fabrication of your enemy. Radar images and high pressure areas are fiction created by those who sell gasoline and coffee. Your friends are already in on the deception along with NASA. And they are at home in bed.

      Stay home, young Washingtonian, and get some sleep. Lord knows it's dark enough.

      -Zipwow
    • The moon mesed up Leonids for us this year. If someone would have turned that damned thing off, you would have likely seen a few per second.
    • Don't know if this applies to most geeks as they generally dont spend a lot of time with the fairer sex. Anyways during the last big shower here, I got a lady friend and headed up to the mountains. With a nice blanket, some food, and some sleeping bags you can have a lot of fun. The winter is perfect time for said fun, see it's cold (especially in the mountains) and cold means getting into the sleeping bags and finding another source of body heat. Then you already have romance with the stars and mountains and what not, and cuddling leads to one thing and that leads to another and pretty soon you've got something really worth your time on yer hands. So come on guys find a lady friend and head somewhere remote. Hell you already have the romance built in. Not even Cowboy Neal could screw this one up.
  • It has been raining all day.

  • Weather Accepting, of Course (Score:4, Funny)

    by MyHair ( 589485 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @06:59PM (#4884463) Journal
    It's SNOWING where I am, you insensitive clod!

  • Early Demise for DirecTV? (Score:3, Funny)

    by vudufixit ( 581911 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @06:59PM (#4884465)
    Maybe the meteor shower will bring an earlier end to DirecTV Internet...

  • No meteors in the Bay area (Score:3, Informative)

    by dagg ( 153577 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @07:00PM (#4884471) Journal

    No meteors in the Bay area.

    San Francisco and friends are getting 6-12 inches of rain this weekend. Or several feet of snow if you're in the mountains. Might be a better time to go skiing or snowboarding.

    The Geminids were pretty good, last year, though.

    • Might be a better time to go skiing or snowboarding.

      Ha! Except that this storm is to warm for snow. It's currently about 45F in most of the Sierras, and it's raining...

      3.5" today in Berkley. My basement is flooding. Good thing I fixed the roof.

  • 1.4 yr long orbit, interesting (Score:5, Interesting)

    by peculiarmethod ( 301094 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @07:01PM (#4884472) Journal
    I'm no astronomer, but isnt it interesting in the least that the orbit is so close to earths with such a similiar length in orbit? Should not the trajectory/composition/dating be studied for maybe relevance in say, the formation of the moon or other interesting local phenomena?

    pm
    • I am an astronomer, and no, the formation of the moon was caused during the settling after a giant impact [spacedaily.com] in the same dust ring (around the proto-sun) from which the Earth was formed. The reason that meteor showers recur yearly is because the Earth passes through the comet's tail remnants, which orbit the sun much more slowly, once every year at roughly the same spot. When the Earth's atmosphere hits these sand-sized bits, they burn and streak into meteors.
    • It is very unlikely that either comet or meteorites would have survived that long. Even at 1 AU, the Sun would have long ago made most of the volatiles on the comet disappear. Failing that, 4.5 billion years is plenty long enough for some sort of collision to have occured, removing comet/meteorites from circulation.
      Besides, what would the connection actually be? Comets don't come from rocky bits, they're mainly ice. So you wouldn't have probably formed any cometary material in the giant impact that formed our Moon. And even if you did, it is difficult to get it onto such a highly eccentric orbit.
      All in all, it doesn't seem a likely area of interet. But it's still a pretty meteor shower.
    • But in Soviet Russia, the Meteors study YOU!

      • But in Soviet Russia, the Meteors study YOU!

        i think this joke has been done to death...please people...stop stealing jokes from FARK [fark.com]

        they were not funny in the first place...leave them be

  • Moon (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 13, 2002 @07:02PM (#4884479)
    One thing better than the Leonids last month: The moon will be only 70% full tonight, and it'll set earlier.

    The bad thing is, it's not as spectacular a show as the Leonids, all things being equal.
  • i'm normally seeing lights and showering meteors myself anyways...

    MADD SCIENTIST SHALL REIGN AGAIN!

  • The weathers bad tonight! (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    According to the weather channel, there will be heavy blizzards across the states, so you will not be actually see the meteor shower :(.
  • the atmosphere "spews chunks" into 3200 Phaethon.
  • It is a precursor to attack by hostile aliens, lead by an interstellar tyrant named Mongul. He means to create Warworld! Where's Green Lantern when you need him?
  • Surprisingly, for a december evening in vancouver BC there's full cloud cover and it's pissing rain like mad.

    Enjoy the show tonight. Think of me while you're out there.

    *sniff*

  • No thanks... (Score:1, Troll)

    by Pedrito ( 94783 )
    I woke up for the Leonids this year. First time I've EVER woken up in the middle of the night to see a meteor shower. Supposedly the BEST of this century. I saw stars. Didn't see a single falling one. I stood out there in the freezing $@#%ing cold, and couldn't get back to sleep for two hours, making me a mess at work the next day.

    So, I think it's fair to say I'll pass on this one.
    • hmmm... to view the Leonids I went into the mountains of northern california, staying at a campsite around 5200 feet, the nearest small town (with obtrusive lights) over an hour away and I slept/lay awake in the open on a picnic table, facing the sky.

      Okay, so I only saw perhaps a dozen meteors through two nights, but the trip was nice nonetheless. The stars were amazingly bright out there too.

      Anyways, I've forgotten what my original point was, but just because it sucked last time around doesn't mean they will always suck. Unless it rains (looks out window) - shit [slashdot.org].

      When you get right down to it, I guess you want to see them or you don't. Just don't rain on other people's parade. (pun - haha?)

    • > I woke up for the Leonids this year. First time I've EVER woken up in the middle of the night to see a meteor shower.

      Lets just shorten that to "First time I've ever woken up in the middle of the night" and I'd call it good to go. I too woke up early to see them, and that was the first time I can remember that I had EVER seen the sun rise and sleeping during that same night (staying up all night doesnt count)
    • Last years was the shit. I saw it go over 4000 an hour for about 30 minutes before dawn started to break. This year I couldn't see because the damn moon and fog. Aparently it sucked this year despite predictions otherwise. Meteor shower predictions tend to be iffy.

  • Some more info (Score:5, Informative)

    by maggard ( 5579 ) <michael@michaelmaggard.com> on Friday December 13, 2002 @07:11PM (#4884541) Homepage Journal
    Just to be a bit more realistic we're talking about one trail per minute or so. While that's nice to see when laying on one's back next to someone you like, or just for the thrill of it if you're into astronomy, it's not enough to get most folks off their couches. Considering also it's mid-winter in the northern hemisphere the viewership is likely somewhat limited.

    As to "are there more of these?" Nope. We have had a few spectacular shows in the past few years but nothing statistically unusual or anything more then wider reporting and slightly more accurate predictions.

    Usual tips apply: Get out of the city, away from parking-lot lights, hills help block glare, let your eyes adjust, remember that a clear sky is COLD, binoculars are useless for this but entertaining for looking at other things like nebula and Jupiter's moons, look up online for tips regarding astrophotography and no your camera flash won't help...

    • You'll also want to have godlike abilities to control the weather so that you can get rid of those fucking clouds that blocked out the Leonids.
    • some of us can just kill the lights, plop down in a beach chair in the back yard, and watch for meteors while sipping a corona or three and listening to the multitudes of small creatures hidden in the trees chirping contently.

    • >> While that's nice to see when laying on one's back next to someone you like, or just for the thrill of it if you're into astronomy, it's not enough to get most folks off their couches. Considering also it's mid-winter in the northern hemisphere the viewership is likely somewhat limited.

      Translation: Unless you're going to get laid afterwards, it's not worth freezing your @$$ off for.

  • After the LAN party? (Score:5, Funny)

    by DeadMoose ( 518744 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @07:12PM (#4884544)

    after the lan party, you can step outside at two or three A.M.

    Two or three AM? What kind of wimpy LAN parties do you have?

    • Prolly better ones then the ones where I was invited:

      Mate: Hey, want to come to this lan party me and a few more people are setting up?
      Me: Sure, which games will there be, mainly?
      Mate: Er, what? Just counterstrike of course... Maybe a few random odd games, but we're planning on this really massive counterstrike tournament where the best groups wins a few meters of beer and-
      Me: I'm sorry, I can't... I have to hand in a report the day after so I need to spend time on that...
      Mate: I didn't even mention a date yet
      Me: I'm sure something will come in between, I'll make sure of it
    • Wimpy!!!

      We go out side at that time just so we can beat the crap aout of each other...with boards... that have really rusty nails in them.

      That was a long way to go for such a weak joke.

  • Peak time (Score:5, Informative)

    by pandrel ( 633485 ) <pjandrel1@verizon.net> on Friday December 13, 2002 @07:17PM (#4884569)
    According to the Article Peak activity is projected around 4 a.m. EST (1 a.m. PST) with ideal dark-sky conditions, at least 60 to 120 Geminid meteors can be expected to burst across the sky every hour. They will be hitting Earth's Atmosphere at 22 miles per minute.. Insane..
  • I think I saw Data's remains burning in the upper atmosphere...

  • Wow! (Score:2)

    by 1984 ( 56406 )

    Personally, I can't wait to get up in the middle of the night to watch this [weather.com]

    :-)

    Enjoy it those what can.

  • .... this metor shower is going to be a ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME[or close to it] event!

  • After last year's Leonids, it's hard to go out (Score:4, Informative)

    by btempleton ( 149110 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @07:41PM (#4884674) Homepage
    I used to go out regularly for showers, usually the Perseids. It's usually too cold for the Geminids.

    But after last year's Leonids, where I got a 7,000/hour rate -- 2 per second for a sustained 15 minutes -- in Japan, it's hard to go out for the regular showers again, where even witha claimed rate of 75/hour you are likely to see fewer without the best conditions.

    Pictures are here [templetons.com] and here for 2002 [templetons.com].

    Even this year's show, which got up to 600/hour at the peak,and thus the 2nd best show in my experience, was a letdown.

    Of course, I missed the 1966 show, being too young. Joe Haldeman saw it and told me it was like standing on the bridge of the Enterprise and watching the stars go by. He said for the first time he really could understand how he was standing on a planet moving in space.

    But that was an estimated 70,000 per hour rate.

    We won't see that again from the Leonids for about 97 years, if we see it then. It is possible another surprise show could come now that they are getting better at predicting, but I doubt it.

    So yes, the past few years have shown an abundance of good shows. There was also a good Perseids show in the mid 90s, about 300/hour just after its comet went by. But the show is over for now, and I doubt the Geminids rate a /. headline.

  • light pollution SUCKS (Score:5, Interesting)

    by io333 ( 574963 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @07:51PM (#4884718)
    I remember when the orange streetlamps started to be installed in the 70's. Before that, all streetlamps were of the bluish variety and gave very little light pollution. I have no idea why they all use orange ones now, I guess they are cheaper? I think the orange ones are called "sodium vapor."

    I wish we could go back to blue, or at least redesign the orange ones so that they don't shine so much light into the sky. I remember as a kid looking up and seeing the milky way. Now I'm lucky if I manage to see Jupiter through the orange haze.

    Three or four years ago, the head of the planetarium and observatory in Bradenton, FL was arrested while shooting out streetlamps near the observatory with a shotgun. I totally understand that guy. He was just fed up.

    • Re:light pollution SUCKStheory (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      i've heard that the human eye processes blue light the least accurately. (hence blueblocker glasses)

      from my color studies, i know that blue and orange are opposite on the color wheel.

      it's possible that the orange light is the most accurate....and in low lighting conditions, maybe your eye needs less of the orange light.

      i think your observation about lighting pollution is flawed if you are considering the COLOR of the light to be the source. (though i'm not ruling it out).

      other explations:
      - shear quantity...in the past lower light levels were acceptable. current home associations and city codes may be forceing more lumens per square foot in any given situtation.

      -more air polution. this could be another answer. in a city like san antonio, our air has ONLY worsened over the last 20 years. (if you are thinking about cities in california that might have a reverse trend)

      -where you live now might be different then where you grew up

      etcetcetc
    • I agree! Aside from those ghastly orange lights (yes they are sodium vapor), there are more people with really bright porch lights they leave on all night as well as more cars and ever brighter headlights.

      I live out at the edge of civilization in soutwestern Ohio and while I get pretty dark skies, every time I try to use my telescope in the back yard, my idiot neighbors almost always end up turning on one of their fucking porch floodlights. I would like to shoot both the lights and THEM with a shotgun when they do that. Since then I've located an abandoned parking lot around what used to be a small theater where I can put the building between myself and a few of the old "blue" lights around a warehouse about half a mile away.

      What I think is in a way just as bad is car headlights. Notice a lot of the new luxury cars and SUV's which have those fucking purple/blue headlights? God I hate those things! Now if there is a candidate for a good shotgunning, it is those things.
    • Orange street lights produce less light pollution.

      The light is produced from a single transition in the Sodium atom, therefore the light is confined to a single wavelength and is trivial to filter [astronexus.com].

      The light from the white lights is, obviously, spread across the spectrum and is therefore hard to filter.
  • As an astromoner, I'm always pleasantly pleased when I see these proto planets raining down upon us from the heavens.

    This particular shower comes to us all the way from Uranus, travelling across almost the entire galaxy just to reach earth.

    It's awe-inspiring.

  • Not all meteor showers are alike, which is neat (Score:3, Interesting)

    by SteweyGriffin ( 634046 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @07:58PM (#4884745)
    Conventional meteor showers come from comets, ice, and rock and material from them is jerked off when they approach the sun, creating those large tails trailing the objects and leaving clouds of gas and dust.

    When the Earth plows through such debris patches, minuscule comet fragments burn up in the atmosphere and light up the nighttime sky.

    An article I read on Netscape.com said, however, that "the Geminids are linked to 3200 Phaethon, an inner solar system object that lacks many qualities of comets in the neighborhood."

    "3200 Phaethon doesn't sprout a tail when it comes close to the sun. It doesn't have a halo or a coma," is a quote from a NASA bulletin on these latest showers.

    One other thing that people don't realize, though, is that weather does prohibit good viewing sometimes. It's winter in North America and many of us get snow or hail on an almost daily basis in December and January.

    Maybe we could all post pictures of this as the event comes closer to starting. I'll probably have my brother in law out in Phoenix point the Web cam out the window to see if I can't catch a glimpse of some of this latest Geminid shower.

  • its all about consistency (Score:3, Interesting)

    by SmoothOperator ( 300942 ) on Friday December 13, 2002 @07:59PM (#4884751) Homepage
    The Geminids are the workhorse of meteor showers. They appear year after year, not spectacular, but guaranteed. The Earth passes through a large cloud of debris, and meteors are visible each night for over a week. The density of the meteoroids left over by the astreoid is greater than the cometary debris of usual meteor showers. Therefore, the meteors are very bright and sometimes very colourful. Go see them and enjoy.
  • I'm all meteored out from all the really late-night viewings I've done these last two years. There're other things to look for up in the night sky too, y'know.

    For example, next Tuesday, Saturn will be in opposition [rasnz.org.nz]. During opposition, you'll have a chance to see Saturn's rings to the fullest.

  • Great! (Score:1)

    by Laika ( 32687 )
    Now when my arms get stiff from fragging geezers on ut2k3, I can go outside, stare straight up and get a crick in my neck. Quite an action-packed evening I'm looking foward to!
  • I wonder how many space-geeks are also trekkies. They could have some big decisions to make what with Nemesis also out tonight

    Of course, for many meteors might be a very fitting finale to the night of a trek movie.
  • Here's [members.shaw.ca] a way to hear it even if you can't see it.
  • Obligiatory John Wyndham plug:

    Day of the Triffids.

    This will be the doomsday of our planet as we know it. Our genetically modified planlife will rise and overtake us as the meteors blind as as they activate warheads in satellites.

    I'm just glad I watched Nemesis before it all ended...
  • all those times mentioned are us-based. I'm no astronomer, but will we see these in Europe?
  • Yesterday when driving I saw the BIGGEST shooting star in my life. It was huge and it elongated itself down for what felt like ten seconds (although, obviously, it wasn't even close), and it went STRAIGHT down. It was the most impressive thing I've seen from the skies, and I am wondering if it is a part of this meteor shower.
  • Mmmm stars and ... "Taken" .... it was a GOOD show.
  • I stepped outside after the lan party; I looked up to the stars. I felt a slight rumbling down below. Low and behold, I bagan to spew chunks of a different kind. Brown chunks, orange chunks,... Green Chunks!!! Ah but my chunks blended well with the stars as they shot by. My Pie in the sky... if you will.
  • ...
    Because its raining out, and if I can see them, we're screwed. ;)
  • Furthermore, Phaethon doesn't have a characteristic comet tail and its spectra indicate a rocky surface.

    Was I the only one to read that as rocket spaceship? Need coffee now... Need coffee...

  • As a lifelong resident of "the northern hemisphere" I can say that there's no need to "bundle up warmly!" to see the atmosphere burn. It's only winter according to the calendar. It's really fall. It's 4am here, and the temps just now dipped below freezing. For those whose idea of "the northern hemisphere" is Georgia (the US version, that is), let me explain:

    Above 50F, no special precautions are needed.
    Between 30 and 50, a sweater, light coat, or other provision is recommended but not required.
    Between 0 and 30, a coat is recommended or required, depending on wind and one's metabolism.
    Between -40 and 0, "bundle up warmly" is a damn good idea.
    I've only been in -40 degree weather once, but it sucked. At that point, you don't bundle up warmly, you just try not to leave the house. Which is good, since tractors (and probably cars too) get real pissy at those temps, and want tons of ether before they'll start.

    That's my "wimpy city folk" rant for the day. Thank you for your participation.
  • Heading to and from an awesome techno party me and my friends caught about 40 or so 'shooting stars.' What's amazing is this was all from passenger and driver side windows. I would guess that we had around a 30% view of the sky. Granted we have a great advantage, living out in country Texas there aren't very many of the city lights to obscure the stars. In fact it's actually hard to make out many of the constellations because there are _too many_ stars up there. It was awesome, and an excellent begining and end to an excellent night.
    • http://uregina.ca/~kleinjoh/images/gem1.jpg

      http://uregina.ca/~kleinjoh/images/gem2.jpg

      Not linked so they aren't /.'ed too quickly. Not that they are wonderful pictures, they are just my second and 3rd pictures of meteors ever. I got 2 Leonids in one shot [ pic available from another website].

      I used a Canon Powershot S30 digital, ISO400 setting, 15 second, 2.8fstop, and 2 second timer with a cardboard "tripod", and warm clothes with luck.
  • It seems more like a rule than accident that these posts about meteors, most likely visible all over the world, do not tell the timezone. At 3 A.M tells me nothing. Annoying

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