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Invaders from Space! Leonid Showers tonight.
Space.Com, Astronomy Magazine and The American Meteor Society all have tons of information, viewing guides and historical perspectives for you to peruse in anticipation of tonight Lonid meteor shower. Many are predicting a once in a lifetime event, as the Earth is expected to swing through 3 debris trails laid down by Comet 55p/Temple-Tuttle. One article mentions that up to 10,000 events per hour could be in the offing. So if you feel like staying up till 2am pst (10 ut) you'll be able to check it out. I know we've been hyping this event, but, well, we are okay with this.
For some absolutely gorgeous photographs of past Leonid showers, see the Leonid Multi-instrument Aircraft Campaign.
-The One God of Smilies =)
"Never put off for tomorrow what can be avoided altogether"
Damn!
Me and a couple of buddies are road-tripping our way to a spot in the country far from light pollution today to catch the leonids, and its cloudy!
Damn you weather!
You can't take the sky from me...
Yes, the peak of the shower will be 3-4am (EDT), but there should be no distinguishable difference between midnight and 4am.
So, don't lose too much sleep (or coding time).
If it's at 2am, I believe that would be called "Tomorrow morning".
--
grep "xercist"
it'd be neat if people took pictures from different parts of the world of the showers and maybe /. could put them together in a sort of gallery, listing the times of each and the various locations.. or even someone that just reads /.
any ideas for this ?
Ahh.. I'm looking forward to sitting under the stars away from the city enjoying the natural wonders. The admission charge definitely beats $13.
yes.. there are some times when being a nocturnal creature has it's advantages.
Clear skies, and good luck everyone!
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
By all means, you should try to get out and see this, but keep in mind that predictions are varying wildly as to how spectacular this will be. Some early reports described this shower as big as the Leonid showers in 1966, but current predictions peg this one as 1/10th as large. So expect a good show, but don't expect your eyes to be burned out of your sockets with wonder.
I, for one am looking forward to having something to do tonight, other then sitting on the computer. I have my camera set up and the kids will be staying up late tonight. For you parental types this is a great time to stay up with your children, as they will remember it for years to come.
Preferably Western Australian Time.. its 2:30am here now and the sky is black and not filled with crazy different color streaks of light :(
here with a bunch of
close friends sipping schnapps and staying warm next to the bonfire up on Mt.
Uminum in south San Jose.
There are actually two peaks in the meteors this year, one of them before dawn on the east coast here, and another one about 6-8 hours later which is supposed to be even bigger. People in the US will miss the second peak shower, but that means that if you're in Asia, you're in the prime viewing zone. Also, it's new moon, so there's no other light in the sky to diminish the view! Unless you live in a bright city, and then, oh well... (try to get out into the country if possible)
in the film 'night of the living dead' a probe from space brought with it a strange radiation which caused corpses to walk and feed off the flesh of the living. this could happen with these meteors too. by the film's 2nd sequal 'day of the dead' there were very few living humans left.
You cannot see sheet with cloud cover.
The idea of getting smashed to bits by a random meteorite is unnerving enough, but knowing that the Earth is about to plunge into a cloud of rock debris is outright terrifying.
...peruse in anticipation of tonight Lonid meteor shower.
chrisd is new here, and he can't type either. Is this a Slashdot editorship requirement?
This is going to ROCK !
:)
heh, some people are fleeing their countires for other reasons. (snicker)
-
ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only
Leonid Showers Tonight. That is a sentence. Leonid (subject) showers (verb) tonight (preposition).
Technically, it 'showers' should be a noun and Leonid and adjective, but then it would be a sentence fragment. Grammatically it is correct, so I'm happy.
Keeping
... about the Leonid shower is the Armagh observatory site at http://www.arm.ac.uk/leonid, with lots of explanations, pictures, tips and so forth. Everything you need to know.
Ceci n'est pas une sig
Hey ruszka, please explain your nickname. Is it Polish? What does it mean?
Keeping
If you want to find a dark spot near where you live, the International Dark Sky Association has a page of tools that estimate the brightness of the night sky. You need to know your latitude and longitude for the Java applet.
Ceci n'est pas une sig
All major newpapers don't put periods to titles for centuries, neither do books.
in how to spend this night??. I think that it would be cool if the slashdotters suggest ways to get the best of this event. What about an overnight barbecue??? or a XXI century hippie party?.Or a Lan party at the outsides?? or a wet t-shirts contest with some chicks of the neighbordhood?. What kind of snacks are best suited for viewing shooting stars?,and what about beer?? national or imported?? or some scotch??.are the sex abilities empowered in these kind of nights?? Here in Venezuela, I am planning,like i did a coupled of years ago, to get on the top of my building with some buddies, drinking a lot of Patriarca( A tequila-like-local-booze) and watch some girls naked dressing off in the next buildings, Thank God, They dont read Slashdot :-). Come on pals!! , Help me, I am looking forward for your advices to get the best of the best of this night.
Because of arsehole moderators with a) closed minds b) no sense of humour.
I will see if I can meta-moderate them...
This would be the perfect chance for THEM to come abduct a few people, probably rednecks, and then when people say: 'I SAW A FLYING SAUCER LAST NIGHT' the Men in Black would pat them on the shoulder and say, 'That was just the leonid meteor shower.'
I don't know about you, but I'm going to watch the skies--WITH A GUN.
suddenly I feel very tired
if at all! dammit.. we never see any of the good stuff out there! any other south african's here that are also pissed off about this?
This is a time for nerds to meet and mate to produce the next generation of mutants.
According to Microsoft scientists, we are all wrong on the way the earth spins, thus the timing and viewing locations for tonight's metor shower might be off!
Thank God we have MS to educate us.
[alk]
Means I'll be sleeping while you douchbags freeze your asses off
Golly Gee, so Momma Nid finally made her son, Leo, take a shower. I'm pleased - this means Leo's a big boy now :)
;)
But, is this really "News that matters"? The personal hygeine of the Nid family doesn't seem all that exciting
What will it look like from there, and if it is really spectacular will there actually be people with a middle ages education thinking it's 1. another bombing run of some kind, or 2. a bad omen from Allah?
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
It'll take your city or any latitude/longitude pair and give you an estimate. For my area, 1am shows about 0/hour and 4am is at over 3,000/hour.
I stepped out at approx 7 PM, Eastern time and not much more than 2 minutes went by before I saw one streaking towards Taurus. It covered about 10 degress over the course of what seemed like at least a second. It compared favorably to Aldebaran in brightness. Possibly it was a bit dimmer, but it was white whereas Aldebaran is orange. I live in Fairfax County, VA where the sky is full of city lights so this impresses me quite a bit. The peak isn't for several hours so I gather this bodes well for a spectacular event. Unfortunately I will be stuck here amidst the haze and skyglow all night.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
..a BB gun.
I made several telescopes when I was a teenager, and have recently taken up grinding glass again after a long hiatus. I was also pleased to find the Central Maine Astronomical Society is in my area and joined last night while visiting their new observatory.
Telescope mirrors can be made by hand with suprisingly simple equipment. An eight-inch diameter telescope will run you about $250, maybe less if you're creative, for the mirror kit, eyepiece, aluminizing, and mounting.
There may be a telescope making or astronomy club in your area. A good way to find out is to subscribe to the ATM mailing list. Another way is to follow some of these links:
- Chabot Telescope Maker's Workshop (Oakland, California)
- Sidewalk Astronomers (Los Angeles and San Francisco)
- Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston
- Stellafane - Springfield Vermont, where the hobby was started in the USA
Although it's helpful, you don't need to work with a club to make a telescope. I didn't for my first two. What you will need is some books, which you can buy from Willman Bell or Newport Glass. You will also need a kit that contains your mirror blank, abrasive, polishing pitch, and polishing abrasive. You can get those from Newport Glass or from Dan Cassaro. There are other suppliers of kits as well, or if you join a club you could buy the materials from another member.If you don't want to build a telescope, you can buy one. The telescopes made by Meade and Celestron are well known. You can find ads for dealers in the pages of Sky and Telescope Magazine, which you'll find in many bookstores.
A large number of astronomy products may be found through the Astronomy Mall.
Although the price differential for small telescopes like 6 or 8 inches is not that great between making it oneself and purchasing, the cost of purchasing really large instruments is really prohibitive, while large ones are actually affordable to make, comparable to purchasing a computer. If you start off making an 8 inch mirror, your next mirror can be much larger, say 16 inches, and amateurs commonly make mirrors from 20 to 30 inches, and I think there is a 72 inch mirror nearly complete made by some amateurs. My goal is to have a 40 inch observatory in my backyard.
Although I've listed U.S. organizations and companies, telescope making is practiced world-wide. A while back someone from Iraq subscribed to the ATM list and asked for help obtaining a kit. There are lots of subscribers from Europe and a number from Asia and Africa. Follow the links, and maybe you'll find a club in your home town, or at least within a reasonable distance!
I cannot describe the awe that comes from beholding the wonders of the heavens through a telescope made with one's own hands.
-- Could you use my software consulting serv
Heck, what's with you people? I know /. is full of fans of the Nid family. I'm a Nidiot, you're a Nidiot, Cowboy Neal's a Nidiot too. I'd have thought this was a Big Deal to all you Nidiots out there, finally Leo's old enough to get a shower instead of a bath :)
I live in Reston. I'm heading out rt 7, to Williams Gap. There's a parking lot at the top of the mountain.
Best Slashdot Co
I was driving home at about 0300 GMT and I saw this flash in the sky, after ten minutes one more - a big one. And they kept dropping in, I know that we isn't as lucky as you in the states and Australia when it comes to numbers. But it still is fantastic. A clear sky and burning meteors just make me happy. Usually I don't like to be out in the cold but on a night like this 0 - -5 degrees celsius doesnät bother me.
:)
I can barley wait until Sunday evening for the big finale
This is the stuff that makes me want to get into amateur astronomy!
The results weren't bad: at around 1:40UT the sky cleared (it was amazing: from fully clouded to clear in less than 10 minutes) and we could watch for around 1 and a half hour. We saw a total of 60 meteors (55 being leonids) with 3 large ones (one being very spectacular).
We in europe are in a bad position since the maximum is predicted at around 19:00 localtime (when the radiant is still below horizon), but we are going to try again tomorrow. Yes, it's cold, yes, we only see meteors for maybe an hour on an entire night, but when you see a huge meteor giving a trail that lasts for seconds .. you know it's worth it.
The results of this expedition will be put next to our other ones, and can be found at our observatory's website
--
If code was hard to write, it should be hard to read
Up here in northern Vermont is clear and cold....
Saw a few already. around 12am... one nice bright one with a long tail... (IANAA)
As I'm sure many other /. readers can attest [at least all you Wolverines...] it's foggy here. Been like this for the past couple hours, in fact so much that I can not see a star in the sky. Hopefully it will clear up before peak @ 4.
Wish all us Michiganders luck.
... that's all i wrote...
I Went into walmart today at about 3:30 to camp for a GameCube, and when I came out at about 6pm, the entire city of pittsburgh was covered in a thick fog. We couldn't see anything. We went into a chinnese buffet (once we found the stripmall) and came out 3 hours latter and it was even THICKER. We Couldn't see WalMart, and everyone who knows what wallmart is knows they are Big. Now it's past midnight and I can't even see the damned telephone poll accross the street. Pittsburh got screwed outta this one.
(Score:0, Interesting)
http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/leonids/ it starts mid morning here in the US so I know what I'll be doing when I get up!
It's 1:35 in the morning and the news say it's around 4 hours from now. Now, here in New York city, there are buildings blocking my view, including my own.
My dad was enthusiastic at first, but the news of the time brought him down. Yes, Central Park would be a good place to go, but I doubt I'll try to camp there in the middle of the night. But that's the only lawn / clear site I know of. Anyone have another one?
"Wireless : LAN
Lets just hope they got the peak right (they have estimated the wrong peak time in the past), and this is the start of the bell curve on NASA's rate graph :)
Toledo is socked in with pea soup fog right now. So much for that meteor shower....
There aren't any meteors, it's a hoax to make people curse the clouds and fog and think they actually missed something that wasn't really there anyway. Oh sure, there'll be videos from some bumfuck place purporting to show the "meteor storm" but it'll all be a bunch of faked stuff.
Oh, well...I didn't want to stay up any later anyway...
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
I stepped out at 0145 CST and immediately saw a sucession of meteors that left dim green trails and a number of streakers, many of which streaked right across Orion. Now, even without letting my eyes properly adjusting to the light but keeping a count as to as many as I could see I would estimate the rate over 45 minutes of observation as somewere in the range of 30-40/hour. Not bad so far!
I'll reply to myself as I go out later...
-AP
I'm going to wake my wife up at 4:15 or so for the peak, and hope it clears again!
-- Could you use my software consulting serv
Hello! Great night for watching here...crystal clear and very calm, very good viewing from Atlantic shore! So far, estimated rate as of 0200 - 0400, 40+ per hour.
At a bit before 4AM in Ohio, I saw several meteors within about a minute and a half - with unadjusted eyes, and a well-lit garage behind me.
More interesting to me than the fireballs in the sky, however, is their (apparent) effect on FM broadcast radio.
Since around 8PM, I haven't been able to listen to local radio stations with any clarity - they're all being stepped on by something else sharing the frequency. I can, however, get good reception of a few stations that typically require driving at least 50 miles away to recieve at all.
Reflections from outer space, or strange atmospheric stuff? It -is- a lot foggy tonight...
Kid-proof tablet..
Yep, I'm giving my report at 2:00 a.m. (MST), and you wouldn't believe what I saw and heard. A drunk smashing his truck into everything (heard), and wow! a few stars. I think I saw a few bright lights flashing across the sky, too. One looked like a 737, maybe a 757, and a few commercial craft too.
I hate living in the city.
--- There is a man in a smiling bag.
Seriously. It's 4:30am here in New Jersey and the sky is crystal clear. I went out for a smoke and almost broke my neck but I caught about 4-5 trails while I was out there. Cold though. Berrr.
The sky just turned really cloudy here in Australia and thunder can be heard.
I really hope it clears up by 1:30am (it's 5:30pm right now)
I'm not seeing 70 meteors a minute like the astronomers were saying. Im seeing more like 70 meteors an hour. I see a meteor every 1 to 2 minutes. It's alright, but not worth staying up for. I've seen better meteor showers.
If you don't understand any of my sayings, come to me in private and I shall take you in my German mouth.
Here in Palo Alto I saw 10, all but two in pairs, seconds apart, in 10 minutes. All I could see were bright ones, mostly with green trails.
Went out with some friends tonight to the Blue Ridge Parkway (30 miles into the middle of nowhere to avoid light polution) and it was incredible. Absolutely stunning. I have never seen anything like it before.... we sat on a mountain top so we had a great view and had very little light polution... at one point I saw around 10 shooting stars at the same time.
;)
Totally kick ass
4:47 am. It's basically over. Now I can get back to coding... what a life!
Ceci n'est pas une sig
Viewing conditions are terrible - hazy and
sky is lit by city lights. STILL - seeing
more than 1 / minute. Some are quite spectacular
leaving faint trails and fairly bright. Actually
saw two at the same time just before coming in.
[Insert pithy quote here]
... out in the suburbs, even with the light pollution, the show is very impressive. Most activity seems to be facing south east, at about 50 degrees elevation. (We're at 41 degrees north latitude)
Here's the mapquest link
I have been outside for the last hour watching the meteor shower. It was very interesting to watch, being my first meteor shower. It has been a while since I have looked up to the stars and I must say that it is really peaceful.
So, is it clear? No. Is it cloudy? No. It's totally foggy! Like fog I've never seen. Fog is not common around here. Funny how things turn out sometimes.
After about an hour of observing, I am happy to report that there was a quite spectacular show visible from Troy, NY. Definately worth the slight discomfort of 28(F) weather.
------
Monday is a horrible way to spend 1/7 of your life.
so we should all grab a quick jumbo jet around 0600 and hop over to singapore or malaysia...hope the airlines can handle the /. effect!
Here in Orlando, FL it was raining and cloudy pretty much since 2am... A few friends and I took a small road trip to almost the east coast of the state but no luck. Right place, right time, just that Mother Nature wasn't cooperating with us :-(
Anybody get some good pictures they have posted? I'll bet it was a good show!
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world... those who understand binary and those who don't
This is a great meteor shower, but not what it was hyped up to be. But still better off than watching Iron Chef USA.
And I'm really not sure about that!
||| I still can't believe Parkay's not butter.
I just got back from the Middle of the Desert out here in Tucson and I have to say if I owned a camera that could do say 30 minute time exposure.. It would have been completely white with streaks! It was really cool. For all of you who still have a chance go check it out..
What an unbelievable site. I'm glad I got to witness it.
I'm at work on the night shift and went outside at ~05:15 EST and saw about twenty-five in a ten minute period. Really spectacular, saw a couple leave glowing trails.
It may seem insignificant, but when I thought about the cause of the show i.e. our tiny little planet hurtling though the debris of a chunk of ice and dirt, it really made me feel small (but in a good way).
I really recommend trying to catch a view.
"It's hard to be a man when there's a gun in your hand"
I live in NYC with no car. I had pretty much written off seeing a good shower because of the light pollution. But I was up, so what the heck, I walked outside my apartment. I could see those meteors streaking in every couple of minutes! Too bad my friends are too civilization bound to want to freeze in Central Park tomorrow night. I hope there's something left by Thanksgiving morning. I'll probably hit the state park near where my folks live for a better view.
Does anyone know what that abnormally bright star star shining in the (NYC) sky? Quite distinctive; it was so bright, I'm guessing it was either Venus or the ISS. I'd appreciate it if anyone could give an informed identification. Thanks.
There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
very disappointing, clouds everywhere. i saw like three faint streaks in 90 minutes...
Here in Western Mass I counted 605 in 50 minutes (from my front yard too). My somewhat rural area is rated at a limiting magnitude of 5.4 according to darksky.org. So, I can imagine how many I would've seen had I driven up to an even more secluded spot. It's cold out, but that was worth it!
I live in NH, with no light pollution, and a 360 degree view of the sky. i have never seen anything like this. 10-20 meteors at once several times!
Giant flashes and explosions (no sound) many times.. A rate of 4-6k per hour, and a peak at about 5:30 before the sun started coming up!
Absolutely spectacular! They sky was raining meteors!
I hope others who stayed up all night had as great of luck, it was something I hope I will see again.
Gee, my fingers are COLD but it was a clear and starry night!!
I started at 04:25.
I counted 18 by 04:30. The 100th came at 05:15. The 150th came at 05:25. I wanted to count the 200th but my neightbour had to go to work and triggered the parking lot BRIGHT light at 05:46 with a count of 197.
I probably didn't even see 1/4 or 1/5 of them all. I (d'oh!) realized my hat (baseball cap) was obstructing the upper part of my vision (didn't notice because it was dark!) at about 5:30 so turned it around and dealt with it not keeping my head quite as warm. Also, with buildings and trees all around me (thankfully most of the trees aren't evergreen so were mostly transparent) there were large areas of the sky that I couldn't see at all.
Not taking a chair outside was a big mistake, too. Trying to stand, stay warm AND crane your head up at the sky for over an hour wasn't that comfortable, but was well worth getting up early for!!
Slashdot? Oh, I just read it for the articles.
I went outside from my parents' house in Alabama. I live Birmigham (where we see very few stars), but my parents' house is in a town of about 20,000 people. Despite some haze, and streetlights, I saw a lot.
I saw 50 in 12 minutes. After 23 minutes (4:09-4:32 CST), I saw 100, and went in. I can't even imagine what it must have been like further out in the country.
it's a little before 6am and i just came in because it's TOO cold out there (Eastern PA)! quite a show, though.... i was standing amongst some trees to block out street lights in the distance, but still got a good view. about 5:30 there was a very bright one that left a trail that lasted almost a minute! i could see the trail even while it was being dispersed by the wind.
:)
anyway, just wanted to post some random observations while sipping single malt to get warm again
WOW!!!, My girlfreind and I stuck it out in the freezing cold from 4:20AM-5:30AM. On one of the clearest nights this season we could see far more stars than usual and knew we had a good chance for spotting some meteors. Little did we realize the show that was in store for us. I'd say we were seeing ~20 meteors a minute consistently for the entire period. There were definitely bouts with few if any followed by peaks where 5 or 6 meteors would streak the sky simultaneously. Considering the estimates were that only 500/hour would be visible if we were lucky, we must have been very very lucky, as we were exceeding those numbers by quite a bit. I can't wait to find out the final tally on last night's storm. Imagine that we were able to see so much from Brooklyn, NY... I never would have thought. Our friends in Australia are in for one hell of a show if there meets predictions.
...between 5 and 5:30 am EDT. Anyone else care to take a shot at about how many they saw per hour at peak?
Any sufficiently advanced influence is indistinguishable from control.
We laid in our back yard comfortably for 30 minutes or so. Even with the city lights from Boston and narrow view due to trees, it was a good show. Nothing like 2000/hour, but I think we saw around 50 shooting stars or more (an a couple of satellits passing by) while we laid there. That was exciting enough for my son to enjoy his first sighting of shooting stars.
Hiroto
I even got to see two that left visible trails for 3-5 seconds!!! Not bad! Definitely worth dragging myself out of bed for...
I'm inside the city of Calgary in Canada. The skies cleared out around 1:30am and it has been absolutely clear ever since. Am seeming about one every ten seconds but since I'm inside the city glow in my backyard I would imagine it is quite spectacular in the countryside. (I can only see about seven stars in the Pleiades (sp?) "cloud". Jupiter is quite bright, just to the "left" of Orion. Occasionally, if you were looking at just the right spot when one meteor appeared, you could see some orange & red in the trail...I don't know if that was just an optical illusion but it was quite nice. It's now 4:10am local time (Mountain time zone, North America) and I'm going outside one last time, and then I'm going back to bed with the wife & cats. one every 10 seconds = 360 per hour...not bad from within the city.
Thomas Dzubin
It was a bit cloudy here in Anchorage, but the clouds seemed to clear in just the right part of the sky and the show was -beautiful-. Many bright fireballs leaving trails visible for well over 5 seconds. Sometimes even simultaneous fireballs. I was quite impressed. From my part of the world they appear to streak horizontally straight across the sky.
Just got in! Saw a steady stream of meteors from about 4:20 ET to 6:00 ET. No really sharp peak, just caught a couple per minute most of that time. Actually looked like it might have been picking up steam as the sun rose...
Very cool stuff. It peaked around 2:15 here, but I'm too tired for any more watching. Plus my neck's gonna kill me in the morning.
Perfectly clear skies up here in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Just came in. Saw hundreds in the ~2hr. I was out.
Lots of trails in yellows and blues. We're far enough away from Seattle to get to see some of the faint ones. For a change we had clear skys so I got some good views of Saturn, Jupitor and the Orion nebula. My wife was impressed enough to have been happy to get woke up for the view.
In a time of universal lies, Telling the Truth is a revolutionary act - George Orwell
I think I just missed the peak. Drove my MGA out of town (no top) and saw three bright ones right between the street lamps. When I finally did find the perfect place to park, I had spotted twenty before I found a comfortable way to slouch. Four or five per minute for the next hour or so. Three times I spotted several at once. One really bright on that went zap, dim, pow. Bright little red dot at the end. One left a trail that hung for about four seconds. All in all, worth having a car that likes 94 octane.
WOW! Rarely waited more than 20 seconds between seeing meteors; saw 2 at once at least a dozen times; and a couple of times I saw 3 at once! Saw many with long, orange-colored trails. Definitely well worth it!
Background info: Observed from 4:15 - 5:45 AM EST and saw meteors throughout that period. I was located at a state park about 20 miles west of Boston. I hopes to lessen the impact of light pollution, but could not make out the milky way. :(
And it was COLD! About 25 degrees Fahrenheit. I was prepared with heavy thermal underwear, turtleneck, wool sweater, ski suit, two layers of heavy socks, heavy boots, wool hat, and ski gloves... and I still got cold! Glad I brought a thermos of hot coffee!
Something on the order of 75 cars were parked in the lot and along the roadway to it, so there was a goodly number of us watching together. It was really something to hear simultaneous "Ooooo"s and "Ahhhhh"s!
Despite all the light (and air) pollution of southeastern Louisiana, I counted anywhere from 2-3 a minute the whole time I was outside from 2-4:30. The most I saw was between 3:30-4:30, seeing up to 4 at one time, from tiny red ones to white ones that leave a blue trail, and a couple big juicy green ones that looked like Roman candles, including one that took a dog-leg path, leaving a trail of "smoke" that lasted for a couple minutes. Best meteor shower I've ever seen.
I was in a plane during the shower (due to a fuck-up by ATA. `8r/ Thank you united for saving me!) flying back from Vegas. We were somewhere over the middle of the US when it started happening. It was a bit difficult because I could only see the obliques, but it was REALLY cool. I saw like 6 happen all at once in one small area. and a few that were absolutely huge! `8r)
But, Chicago was fogged in at the time, so I'm glad I was able to see anything. `8r) yay!
Gonzo Granzeau
"Nothing the god of biomechanics wouldn't let you into heaven for.." -Roy Batty
...stopped at the beach around 1:15AM HST (3:15 PST). About an hour after the peak, but there were still one or two a minute - that's of the bright ones, of course. I could see faint trails going by in some part of the sky about every 10 seconds or so. Drove home after a bit and was greeted stepping out of my car by one last, bright meteor with a green trail. Fantastic!
Cyclopatra
"We can't all, and some of us don't." -- Eeyore
I was out from 4:45-5:20 EST, in State College, PA; I saw about 30-35, at a rate of ~1/minute. Maybe 6-7 good bright ones, but no cool colors or fireballs or anything. Too many streetlights and trees, and I was moving around for a while trying to find a better location without having to walk too far. With less streetlights, trees, and walking, I probably would have seen twice that. Still, the rate doesn't sound as good as what a lot of people were seeing.
We had a good night too. Good weather, although there was still a
fair bit of skyglow near the horizon. Couldn't see the Milky Way, but
we had a view where we could lie down and see nearly all the night sky
at once. Although juding from the oohs and aahs when I didn't see
anything, there were some I was missing, maybe 5%, mostly from people
standing up looking near the horizon where I wasn't paying as much
attention since it was brighter. But most of the ones I saw were
plenty bright. It wasn't like there were many that I could just
barely see. Or maybe I just didn't notice those for all the bright
ones. I think the show was still going when twilight cut us off.
I'll know the rate once I play back the audio tape, but we
probably saw a few hundred total. The most spectacular were the long
bright green ones that left a trail that stuck around for several
seconds afterwards. A few even had a second burt. Probably 10-20
really bright ones with green tails. One was audible. Several times
there were multiple meteors visible at once. In any case,
it was a great show. Now need to get ready for my trip.
Watched from 3:45 - 5:00 and saw a whole bunch of meteors(50+). This was probably the coolest thing I've ever seen in nature. All I can say is that if you missed, it would suck to be you right now. It was a really amazing experience, which was made even more enjoyable by sharing it with a good friend of mine.
At 5 AM November 18 I walked my dog for an hour out in the unlit countryside in the Rawson/Bluffton area. I saw probably about a hundred shooters within the hour, a very beautiful and wonderful sight. Many thanks to /. for reporting the Leonids: this is the first year I actually got to see the grand display ! FYI, my dog showed no interest at all in the phenomenon.
It was an amazing view from the top of stone mountain. The state park was open charging $7 at the door, but it was worth every penny. After a 1.5 mile hike up the mountain, the view was probably the best you could get within a 100 mile radius of Atlanta. The mountain got us above the worst of the light pollution but you couldn't catch much near the bright orange horizon (on all sides)
I probably saw at least 200 separate meteors and saw 2 simultaneous several times and during one 5 second period saw 5 or 6. The predictions seemed right on target with the shower peaking 5am EST and trailing off near twilight (but still getting one every minute or so). There wasn't a cloud in the sky but the horizon was layered in well lit smog dimming out a few really low ones.
There was one in particular that glowed bright blue-green and travelled at an amazingly slow speed for about 1 second before dying. It reminded me of a dud Roman candle firework, just sputtering its way across the sky instead of flying.
I've gone my entire life (24 years) without ever seeing a meteor until tonight. I was always the unlucky one that was looking away when they happened by chance. I've now marked one more item off of the things to do in my lifetime. Thanks to the slashdot folk for all the details (peak time, etc) that allowed me to see this wonderful event.
Just figured that I'd post, for all that it's worth, that it was great viewing in Massachussetts tonight. I stepped out at about 4:45, and it was one of the clearest nights I've ever seen. I'm in the middle of a very illuminated area (Lights from the top of a retirement home, actually) and the shower was still quite impressive. The number of meteors I saw was phenomonal, and there were some very large and bright ones.
Desipte the time, I wasn't alone either; I could here a few of my neighbors up the block enjoying it.
Drove way outta the LA city lights up to Wrightwood. Got the families and kids together with lawn chairs, munchies, and good hot coffee. Great show! Saw quite a few leaving a serious trail of sparks behind them. Stayed up there until about 2:30am.
Heck, on the way home passing by the lights of the San Fernando Valley (a bit north of LA) I could see them still coming down through the windshield of the car. This is with a ton of light from the city lights, not to mention the other cars.
After everyone else went to bed I went back outside and could still see a tremendous show, again even with the lights of the city near by. It was still worth it to drive out to the darker parts as the show was just that much better.
Next time (2099) I've got plans to bring more coffee along!
The line must be drawn here. This far. No further.
It wasn't quite a Fourth of July (major fireworks, for those not familiar) display, but it got up to one or two every few seconds there for a bit... the most spectacular one was nearly dead overhead, a triple trail in tight formation with a big flash at the end followed by a fourth along nearly the same track.... for something I know will be once in a lifetime, it was worth the drive. Now, I've got to go to bed before I face-plant the keyboard....
Sign me,
Sleepy in Seattle
Started viewing 4am or so in TN. First I just got in the shadow of the house. Counted 130 in 30 minutes or so. I was impressed! So I got in the car and drove to a more remote location. At that point I counted 100 in around 7 minutes!
I saw quite a few bolides. Which someone posted about, didn't know what they were, but as they said they are the ones that go very bright and seem to burst a bit. They left wider streams of cloudy light and even stayed visible for a few seconds before dimming out.
The highlights had to be when I saw 3 seemingly at the exact same time, all radiating away from one point. Then later I saw 2 at the same time which appeared to be moving exactly parallel to each other.
A few of them were very dim so getting to a dark place makes a lot of numbers as far as how many you will see as well as just making it more fun.
A lawn chair is supposed to make your neck not hurt??? I just put a blanket on the ground and laid flat on my back. I would think that would work better? Anyway it seemed to work well for me.
I just returned from the Serria Mnts. on the CA side near Truckee, I must of seen a couple of hundred really bright flashes, and about 5 red fireballs. I also noticed that I was not alone even though I was well off the beaten path. 20 or 30 observes stopped and watched from 1230am to 330am. So now I am back at work (in SF) with no sleep and a full plate of Java programming to do. I hope many of you tore yourself away from your new xbox long enough to venture a look see. Check my URL in a few days and I will post the images I got with my night vision equipment.
"Get them before they get....
You're going to have a whole lot of dreams come true, last night.
:-(
I ran out of wishes about a minute in.
Watched in Massachussetts from about 4:30am to 5:20 EST, saw a really stunning show in the southwestern part of the sky. It was great!
I've been an on and off observer of meteor showers for many years. Each year, I watch the geminids and the quadrantids (because that's the time of year at which I actually have free time). I'm familiar with the red "fireballs"; I'll never forget watching the perseids in 1991 and seeing a fireball light up the sky, reflecting from the ocean (a very beautiful sight!).
But I've never before seen anything like what I saw last night: bright flashes of light moving across the sky, followed by an eerie green trail. Is the composition of this comet different from other comets, or was this just a result of strange lighting effects from the nearby city?
I couldn't see shit.
Blarf.
Someone made a mistake and set the alarm clock for 3pm, rather than 3am (we won't name names). Fortunately my internal clock brought me to full wakefulness at 15 minutes past the hour. After getting dressed and ready with sleeping bag, blanket and the remaining heat in the hot water bottle, I crept outside, careful not to wake the rest of the house. Sitting down in the adirondack on the deck out the back door, I settled down into a comfortable position at 3:25. It was quiet, deadly quiet. The only noise was the rumble of a faraway car. No breeze stirred in the cloudless sky. A perfect night for viewing the Leonid Meteor Storm of 2001, one of the most hyped up events in astronomy in many years.
At first they came slowly, and spasmodically. Just like the ones I remembered as a kid, with the awe and wonder of young eyes. Flashes of light, speeding across the expanse of the heavens.
Double digits, my first ten for the evening. More than I had ever seen in my whole life. Twenty, thirty, forty. On the forty-second one, I made my wish, which as for most wishes, will only come true if I make it so. Fifty, sixty. The sixty-seventh one was special, ten times the brightness of the others, leaving a thin trail like that of a high-altitude aeroplane. The thin trail dissipated slowly, and was still visible several minutes later. Seventy, eighty, ninety. Ninety-six was another bright one, which bounced the atmosphere and reappeared in a single, even brighter flash of extinction. Altogether that night I would see six bright shooting stars, each one deserving of an Oscar.
Owls hooting nearby, with the spooky sound that would make you jump if you were walking through a cemetery. A family of deer creeping carefully through the underbrush, trying not be seen. They are safe - the darkness under the trees is absolute.
At 4:38, after seeing 160 so far, I had to go replenish the hot water bottle, which by now was no longer hot. It was cold out there, refreshingly cold, refreshing enough that I needed something to stop my hands from getting frost-bite.
From 4:41 to 5:17 I saw another 140 shooting stars, although comparing a fragment of a comet the size of a grain of sand to a star is overstating things just a bit. I even saw two that were heading towards the radiant, that part of the sky from which most of the meteors appear to come from, somewhere in the constellation of Leo (although the configuration of stars at that point looks much more like a giant snake to me).
Satellites, sailing serenely across the black night sky of Wilton, Connecticut. In no rush at all, compared to the fleeting meteors, living fast and dying young.
At 5:20 I returned outside after waking my wife so she could join me in watching the splendor of the heavens. Together we saw more satellites, and another 150 specks of transient light between us, huddling in the middle of the deck, turning around to catch the ones behind us, wishing just once we had as many eyes as an arachnid so we could see them all at once. By 5:50 the beginnings of the rising sun could be seen, drowning out the fainter of the stars, shooting and stationary both. We headed inside and tried to grab a couple more hours of half-sleep before the morning impinged itself upon our consciousnesses. We dreamed of astronomical marvels, but our dreams were only half as good as reality. And though it will not be for another 98 years that we expect to see such a sight again, our memories will last that long.
Michael Richards
My house is in the norwalk/westport area of Connecticut near the coast.
In other words, we have light pollution out the wazoo.
I had initially set my alarm to go off at 4:45AM but decided to shut it off-- if I really wanted to see meteors, I would wake up.
Woke up around 4:50AM and lay in bed looking out the window deciding whether or not I wanted to freeze my ass off. Within a minute, I had spotted two meteors out the window, with no glasses, in the direction of some bad light pollution.
I headed outside. Within 5 minutes, I spotted 10 or so faint meteors with trails, 3 or 4 that were fairly bright that left a trail that was viisble for a couple of seconds (and not retina burn), and 1 that was bright enough to light the clouds to the south.
Unbelievable.
So, head in, wake the wife, and we watched for another fifteen minutes with similar results including a couple of more truly spectacular trails.
After going back to bed at 5:45am, I lay away awake for a while looking out the window. At this point, the Sun was starting to come up.
I caught another six meteors out the window-- two of which were *bright* and one of which actually created a *flash* at the end of the trail.
An amazing show.
It was an excellent night for wishes....
There was about 1 foot visibility driving all evening but I got back up at 4am to check for Leonid activity and it was still pure fog, couldn't see a damn thing. :(
Don't give up if it's a bit cloudy. Terminal flashes lighting up clouds from behind are truly spectacular, a Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind type sight! It was cloudy for me last night but after reading this comment I thought that I could still see something interesting. I drove to a light restricted area near an observatory but I still saw absolutely nothing.
I guess I should have known better than to believe what I see on slashdot.
There was a HUGE difference between midnight and 4am, from my viewing location, west of Minneapolis. Almost no comparrison. I was with four other people who eventually fell asleep, and I woke them up at about 3:45, because the show was getting so good. No one fell asleep after that. It was amazing - the count was so much higher, and we saw several bolides - huge flashes, lingering tails probably 6 times in the 4:00 hour. I happened to miss the first bolide of the evening, I stood up, and looked down, just in time to miss it - but the ground was all lit up. It looked like someone had taken a picture - that's how bright it was. Nothing like that, previous to the 4:00 hour! In fact, we saw a bright one - right after dawn. Pretty amazing, when you can beat the light of the SUN. =)
Education is the silver bullet.
We colleceted a group together on campus to watch the shower...unfortunately, a *dense* fog came up that afternoon and grew steadily worse as the night wore on, so couldn't see squat. Same problem in Fort Wayne, apparently. We stayed up and watched John Carpenter's "The Fog" instead (natch), then raided Tom's Donuts at about 4:30a.
Caveat Emptor is not a business model.
From somewhere near Fremont Pass, Colorado (between Copper Mtn ski resort and Leadville), 2am MST til 5am MST, with air temperatures near and below freezing, it was absolutely fantastic! We had a weather front come through, but fortunately for me the clouds cleared up almost entirely until about 5am this morning. I was up around 10800 ft in elevation, the sky was stunning, the meteors fast, furious and colorful!!! Yay, Universe!!!
I've finally rolled out of bed.. breakfast after the show didnt get our house full of students to bed until 6am
the digital cam was useless.. but WOW
that was the most amazing thing I have ever seen (and here in western canada.. i've seen some northern lights that you wouldnt believe)
we headed out to a lake outside of the city and after realizing we were looking the wrong way, we kept our eyes focused north... but then they began appearing all over the sky, north, south east west... everywhere.
we tried to take some numbers... i counted during 5 different ten second intervals and saw anywhere between 6-9 in those intervals
the nasa calculations were dead on (for peak times in our area and expected numbers) I'm just amazed that theres people who can calculate these kind of things and be so dead on correct.
it was something I'll never forget... western canada had a good show and "shooting stars" will never look as good after some of the crazy fire ball looking ones I saw. there was a lot of "ooooh", "aaaah", "that one *had* to have hit the earth"
what a night
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Just like in 1997, I got up to see the display at 3.00 AM only to have the event washed out. No rain in Brisbane for four months and in the last fortnight it almost hasn't stopped raining !
5AM EST: 250 per hour. Wow!
5:30 AM EST: 1000 per hour. A great show!
I rejoice that there are owls.
I witnessed 1024 shooting stars sunday morning from Picayune, Mississippi (in a 5 hour period). Not exactly the "big show" I was hoping to see - but impressive indeed!
Though still part of the metropolis, this made it possible to keep most street lights out of the eyes of the 8 people or so who appeared. Very good conditions, with clouds moving around the lower sky but straight up and most of the sky you could see with your eyes wide open staring high up to the South-southwest or high up to the East was available. It was so clear I thought I could see Jupiter's moons (but no binox so unlikely). Seat of my pants timing seemed to match the predictions, with the peak at 3:30 showing something like a meteor every few seconds. I viewed from 3:00 to 4:00 a.m., and it seemed there was at least a meteor every ten seconds. Some very bright ones, once or twice I saw three at a time, and once or twice very bright red ones. One or two bolide explosions at the end. Some meteor trails were very short, fast ones, there were also long dim ones and the best were big smokers.. the trail looked like a ships wake or an aircraft contrail, smoky and it would fade out to a long, dim glimmer. If you've ever seen a big white double contail in the day time, it looked very similar, sometimes with two parallel trails it seemed, and much fatter. Easy to imagine it as a big smoking trail.
Easy to imagine bouncing radio messages off such big ones, they did resemble recent meteor movies which tells me those animators did their homework. The most impressive of all was the huge red meteor trail maybe 30 degrees long (there were a number of this length that were not red) I saw some time after 3:30, in the Northern sky about 20 degrees over Cassiopeia. I used this guide to eyeball distances in the sky. Thought the red might be sunrise reflected off the trails, but then realized after seeing a greenish smoking trail soon thereafter that differences in meteor composition was a more likely cause.
The KampKonKrew staged KampKon 0.2 as a Leonid watching trip near Ellensburgh WA. The trip went OK despite the cold. And it was damn cold. Dan Sanderson said it was 19 degrees at one point.
I have seen a lots of meteor storms before (at least 20!), but nothing like what I saw around 2:45 to 3:30 Sunday morning. It was amazing! We had mostly clear skies and little light pollution. In one part of the sky alone the meteors were falling faster than I could count. Faster than one a second. This means that there were literally thousands of meteors an hour at the peak. Some of them were huge things that broke into multiple bits as they streaked across sixty and more degrees of sky. Others were dim quickies that faded almost before you could focus on them. The colors ranged from orange to green to blue. Some left colored trails and others were just burning points. Spec-Farking-Tacular! The trip was totally worth the cold and distance in my mind!
For some pictures I took of the trip, go to the KampKonKrew Yahoogroups page and click on 'Photos' at the left and then on 'Leonid Outing'. You can also find a detailed report of the trip there titled 'Leonid Outing: The good, the bad and the lessons learned'. If you live in the Pacific Northwest and are interested in both Science Fiction and Camping you might consider joining the KampKonKrew mailing list.
Jack William Bell
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Are you an SF Fan? Are you a Tru-Fan?