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First-hand Account Of The Leonid Shower

Posted by timothy on from the slept-right-through-it dept.

chongo writes: "The Leonid meteor shower certainly lived up to its hype this year. At Fremont Peak, CA (USA) we saw a peak rate of 2408 meteors/hour. We saw many bright fireballs. During the peak (18 Nov 2001 1015-1130 UTC) there were frequent instances where multiple meteors were visible. Because of this, we suspect the true rate was likely higher than 2500/hr." We've also heard from several folks who were foiled by weather, but it's good that at least some people got the full show. Update: 11/18 17:09 GMT by T : BrianGa writes: "If you missed the show, like I did, you can see some still pictures and animated pictures." He also points to a site with a preliminary graph of the number of meteors visible on November 18th.

2 of 39 comments (clear)

  1. Innnnn-credibe (South Florida) by JabberWokky · · Score: 3, Informative
    I'm down in Palm Beach County, and went out on 441 out towards Okeechobee, out past Moroso to a little side spot I knew and have used several times for stargazing (Milkyway very visible). Halfway there, I had to pull over and just watch for a few minutes - I was getting too distracted by the streaks I could see out my window.

    All in all, an incredible experience, it was cloudy only to the east (sometimes lit from behind), so there were tons of long streaks visible (at the same time, different colors, different speeds and different entry angles (not straight out from a central point)). I saw no exploding or splitting bolides, but lots of very persistant dust trails - as the sun was about to rise, they all lit up, and the sky was crisscrossed with them. It was very subtle, but really really nice.

    --
    Evan

    --
    "$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
  2. Brooklyn, New York by Mignon · · Score: 3, Informative
    I dragged my girlfriend out of bed at 4 am and we took a tarp and sleeping bag to Prospect Park, where we had a nice view in a wide-open meadow near one of the highest points in Brooklyn. Pretty much nothing but sky. There were streetlights, but they were pretty far away and weren't a big problem. Incidentally, there were quite a few other people out there.

    I've only seen meteors twice before, and they were nothing like this. It was quite a show. We saw quite a few of the big ones that left a "snail-trail" that could be seen even if you missed the initial flash. There were several multiples, too.