Major Meteor Shower Next Weekend

IronClad writes: "By some reports, the annual Leonid meteor shower should be the best show in decades, and possibly until 2099. With meteors peaking November 17-18, and particularly over the Pacific, now is the time to check the predicted local meteor flux and buy chips for those star parties. Anyone adding a wireless hub and laptops for a star+lan party?"

Comments

When, where, how?

[Zach`]

How about some basic info on where to watch, eh?

Gleened from Space.com [space.com]

For North American skywatchers, Earth will enter the heavier parts of the stream at about 11 p.m. EST on Saturday, Nov. 17. Activity will peak around 5 a.m. Sunday morning, when as many as 13 meteors per minute could be visible, likely for a stretch of time that lasts less than 1 hour. The peak corresponds to 4 a.m. CST, 3 a.m. MST and 2 a.m. PST.

Re:When, where, how?

[wnknisely]

Head west toward the Poconos. Good, reasonably dark sky and about an hour and a half away from you.

If you're into it, there's a number of people gathering at the Lehigh Valley Observatory sites (LVAAS). I'm going to take my class to the South Mountain site if the weather holds.

Key Tip: Get away from city lights and clouds

[astrophysics]

If you want a good view:
- Get away from city lights. The farther the better.
- Get away from cloudy regions. Duh.
- Get lucky. Look at the right time. Only problem is that estimates of the right time are only estimates.

Great Discussion of This Exact Topic!!

[Incongruity]

For handy reference, this cool site, Slashdot, had great posting and discussion about this very topic on the 7th of this very month! Check it out here

Seriously though, I just thought it'd be worthwile referencing a very similar posting here on /. just a few days ago. It is cool to see that the flux estimator link made it onto the main page. If it's accurate, it'll really help all of us strange enough to go out and look (me being one of them) to actually find the best meteor shower show.

Predictions and observing advice

[wnknisely]

Here's a site that is predicting a ZHR (zenith hourly rate) of meteors during the height of the shower on the order of 1000-3000. Works out to one a second or so - which while not totally amazing - would be a much higher rate than I've ever seen.

They've got two models and both seem to be in relative agreement. It all depends on how the Earth is oriented and moving through the comet trail and the exact geometry of the dust distribution in the trail. But what the heck - I've hung out before, maybe this will be my year to get lucky!

For those on the East Coast, it'll probably be worth getting up a little (okay - a lot) earlier than normal. Check out Leo in the Southeast sky (about 45 degrees above the horizon) around 5 AM in the morning. That should get you right around peak.

The rate should start to ramp up after midnight EST peaking just before dawn. Those to the west will get to see the decline.

The only problem for those on the west is that with the constellation of Leo being the radiant (hence the name) and Leo being low or below the horizon, they'll be missing most of the show. It's just as bad or worse in Europe this time around, since they'll be in daylight during the predicted max.

Mod parent down!

[brunes69]

He copied this word for word from this comment.

Actually...

[mcarbone]

timothy has it wrong. The Leonids are peaking on the night of November 18-19, not on 17-18.

I live in Boston, but by an awesome coincidence, I will be in Australia on that very night. Here's to an awesome meteor shower!

Mirror

[SMN]

I see that the estimator has been Slashdotted, but it looks like NASA has a mirror of the estimator on different servers. Check out http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/estimator.html.

This concludes my karma whoring for the day =)

Tokyo

[mattr]

From what I could get out of their bizarre applet and help from a GNIS server, It looks like Tokyo (Ikebukuro=3543'00"N,13943'00"E) shower will peak at 450/hour (telling the applet we're "downtown"), between 2 and 4 a.m. morning of 11/19 But the prediction at aero.org mentions both models, the more interesting of which says there will be much more (same time frame, 2-4 a.m. 11/19) as follows..

The second significant peak will begin around 12 noon EST and last until 2 pm EST on the 18th of November. The best viewing for this peak will be over Australia and the Far East. The level of activity for this event could be anywhere from 7000 to 15000 meteors per hour!

Anybody who can corroborate..

Which binocular should I get?

[Anonymous Coward]

I am browsin' the internet for a binocular, but am overwhelmed by the variety. Does anyone have suggestions for star/meteor shower gazing?

The American Meteor Society clues the public in on how to view the Leonids:

To best observe the Leonids wear appropriate clothing for the weather. Lie outside in a reclining lawn chair with your feet pointing towards the east (the general direction of the radiant). Do not look directly at the radiant, but at the area above and around it. The Leonids can be observed into morning twilight. Other minor meteor showers will be going on at the time and stray meteors, more commonly called sporadics, will frequently be seen that do not belong to a meteor shower. When you see a meteor mentally trace it backwards and if you arrive at the "sickle" of Leo it is probably a Leonid.

They are referring to the Pleiades, or what my friend and I refer to as "the big question mark in the night sky".

Related links: North American Meteor Network, The American Meteor Society