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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?"
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.
info for all the little meteorites that haven't taken baths lately
Will East Tennessee get left out of this cool event, just like we are left out of reliable cable, good DSL and everything else I want?
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
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.
Is it just me, or is it every couple years that people say that we won't see "a show like this" for 50 years. I might watch, but I might not.
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.
Anyone from the area (see subject) have a good spot to watch from? I was thinking of going out to the Rincon Valley hills.
Ideas?
"Not my manner of thinking but the manner of thinking of others has been the source of my unhappiness." - M
This year is supposed to be special, with astronomers predicting anywhere from 800 (North America) - 8,000 (Australia) meteors visible per hour...
;-)
Oh, so in other words, the conversion rate between American and metric is 10 metric units for each American unit.
If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
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.
In illa quae ultra sunt
I sure hope you're also this guy.
In honor of the Leonids, thousands of identical stories - and identical posts!
sulli
RTFJ.
Hey, while we're out watching the meteors, I bet the /. crew will be trying to figure out how many copies of the same article they can dish out!
C'mon guys, this is like what, 10 repeats in 2 weeks? It's getting ridiculous. Do you read any of these comments or what?
He copied this word for word from this comment.
Leonid Meteor Shower
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!
The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone else when we're uncool. -Crowe
The leonids were a let-down in 1999? Whatever. I drove 20 miles north of San Antonio (which has horrible light pollution) with my girlfriend. We sat out in my pickup truck bed and got the show of a lifetime.
This concludes my karma whoring for the day =)
-- Imagine how much more advanced our technology would be if we had eight fingers per hand.
Heh... I'm waiting for the bath.
Rub-a-dub dub mates.
sweet, i'm going to be spending the next week in the remote areas of New Mexico, at about 6000 ft. the closest real town is over 50 miles away. this ought to be quite a show.
Only six days until Bellis!!!!
I don't think that would work to well. Normally you need to get your eyes adjusted to low light in order to see a lot of meteors. I don't think staring at a laptop screen would help with that...
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
And if you're paranoid: :-)
- Get away from the beach to avoid any tsunami
We may even have live updates on a web page during the show (if I write the code in time anyway :)
Can someone tell me what the estimates will be in Dallas for the duration of the shower? I can't view the page using Mozilla 0.9.5 on OS X. phooey :P
Methinks it has already started...Friday night, I was flying a Cessna 152 from Oklahoma City, OK to Indianapolis, IN. I saw several meteors, including a couple of strange ones--one was greenish in color, had a strobe-ish sort of effect, and appeared to be at about 20,000 feet; another was normal white, but again, looked fairly low. I was already talking to Center, and asked them about it, thinking maybe the Air Force was doing some sort of exercise, but they confirmed that there were no other aircraft in the area. There's some cool stuff up there, and even at 5,500 feet, you can see a whole lot more than you can on the ground. I will never forget some of the ones I saw last Friday.
"Make it ten--I am only a poor corrupt official."
--Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains), Casablanca
get lucky...
;)
:)
very good tip. you aren't going to do that (unless you found one of those amazing computer chics) w/a wireless LAN.
www.thehun.com doesn't count
myself, I would have a blanket, something nice to eat, something great to drink, and my fine lady
:)
No, it's not me. Some people are just dorks I guess. I'm sort of flattered, though.
Thanks for highlighting it. I'm flattered but I'm glad the moron isn't getting credit.
To see the shower but TAKE your laptop. Sheesh. It'll be there when ya go back in, trust me.
kiro,
hoping youll see this. ill be on a cruise to mexico off the coast of california (obviously). im thinking this may be a killer place to see it if its clear....far from the coast and lights.
do you agree with this? if so ill try to get my drunken butt to a good spot to check out the show!
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
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..
I really wish the timing for meteor showers would not conflict with my sleep schedule.
How come every time I read about an upcomming meteor shower, they always say it's going to be the best ones ever, and the best one in the near future.
The American Meteor Society clues the public in on how to view the Leonids: 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
Is there any hope for us people on the East coast, or will there be a live webcast of it or anything, or are we screwed out of this like many other things that occur on the left coast. If anyone has more info I would be forever grateful for it. Thank you, that is all.
I hate sigs.
Why is it that every time there's a major meteor shower, people say it's going to be the best show for the next hundred years? I've heard this said at least once a year since about 1994 or so.
Does this mean Osama and his buddies are going to dress up in purple sheets and Nikes and off themselves?
I love metor showers!
Hammer of Truth
Anyone adding a wireless hub and laptops for a star+lan party?"
No... But I'll be adding a wireless keg.
Anyone know of a good spot to watch in the San Francisco Bay area? My first though was that the top of Mount Diablo would be far enough away from the light pollution to see it well, but the park closes at sunset.
*outside* Shriek! Just put your digital camera out the window, point it toward the sky, and enjoy the show with the added bonus of alt-tab straight to pr0n if the meteors don't perform.
* * Always question "the National Interest" - 9 times out of 10 it is a cover for evil
If you have a wideband receiver you can count how many meteors pass per hour. Set the radio to 73.90 in FM mode and the sql to something like 3.
Those were just UFO's. Don't get to worked up just yet. :)
"There are more important things than stopping terrorism. Upholding the Constitution is one of them." - Ars Forumer.
I've spent more nights than I care to remember out with my little red torch looking for leonids, taurids, younameitids with minimal success.
/. make money idea! start charging us for heavenly activity warnings - I'd pay $20 a year for that kind of service!
My best exerience was a chance aurora a couple of years ago - huge pulsing green, red blue, white for about an hour - amazing. Didn't see more than half a dozen meteors though!
Hopefully next weekend will be better. Hopefully.
What we need is an email / SMS service that will inform us if its turning out good - so we can leap from bed and have a squiz out the window!
Now THERES an
It will be pretty bad since the peak will be around 11h00, 18h31 and 19h19 CET, on November the 18th, but you can still have a decent show the night between the 18th and the 19th.
Anybody has some more information about the sighting in Europe?
No way! AT&T Starlan didn't talk wireless!
I haven't touched that stuff since '91.... It's still too painful to think about. Think Ethernet on crack.
Why is this news? Slashdot covered it only four days ago.
I only hope that Quake 3 runs in red-screen mode...
Beware if you use one of the predefined locations at http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/estimator.html , at least for St. Louis the coordinates are way, way off.
They say we're located at 43 North 85 West, which would put us where, like, Michigan or something? Were actually closer to 39 North 90 West. The timezone is also off, we're not GMT-7 we're GMT-6.
Earl
Ads run constantly on TV advertising the fact that "Gabbo is coming." Springfield gets whipped into a frenzy of excitement, and then Gabbo turns out to be the ventriloquist dummy you just linked to.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
Of course, this time of year, if you live in the Willamette Valley of Oregon (Portland, Salem, Eugene, etc.), you know to expect clouds and rain for this weekend.
The upside is, you can drive to Central/Eastern Oregon and probably have clear weather, and less light pollution.
"Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
here
From Long Island, looks like I either have to buy a boat to go into the ocean or drive 120 miles.
See you near Monticello, NY Sunday morning!
The above post is an editorial, the poster cannot and will not be held responsible for all or in part for it's contents
Well to add to the influx of links I feel forced in justifying the pain involved in teaching my Father to create and maintain a website.
It looks a little amateurish, but I recommend those interested in the field to take a look, with comments and information from Australia's lead Researchers/Observers of NEO's and Lunar Occultations. *Exit Stage Left*
The meteor storm is travelling at 160,000mph and will pass near Earth next weekend.
Nasa has already taken steps to protect the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope.
The controls for the countermeasures can be found here.
--
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Will the metor showers be visible enough to be caught on standard photographic film ? Would one-minute or longer exposures with 1000+ ISO film catch much? Would B&W pick up more than color? I do not have access to anything greater than a 300 MM telephoto lens and have a Canon EOS 300 camera. As I live in Wellington, New Zealand I am alsowondering when the best viewing times are...
I very happy to hear this in advance it seems I always hear about these things after the fact lets see if the weather cooperates
http://Lenny.com
4 great justice!
sounds like a great idea to me. wink wink -fine lady-