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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
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.
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.
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
He copied this word for word from this comment.
This concludes my karma whoring for the day =)
-- Imagine how much more advanced our technology would be if we had eight fingers per hand.
Only six days until Bellis!!!!
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 :)
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
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..