Leonid Meteor Shower Observation Tips

mao che minh writes "For those of us around the world planning on stepping out and witnessing the Leonid meteor showers next week (November 19th), NASA is running an article that will help you maximize your meteor shower viewing enjoyment, straight from the experts' mouths."

Comments

Light Pollution

[Big Mark]

Quote:

""Try to get away from city lights," he suggests. "The darker the sky, the more meteors you'll see."

Of course, if you live anywhere near a city your view will be obscured by that pleasant glow of street lamps. You'll HAVE to make a trip into the countryside to see anything but the brightest of meteors. I don't mind the Moon, as it's something to look at with binoculars during quiet bits of the storm.

If you're in the UK, The Campaign For Dark Skies is an interesting site about this problem.

This image, showing the entire world's wasted light, is also intriguing. Think of all the money wasted because idiot government officials allow such wastage.

Re:Light Pollution

[gleam]

A side note, the Leonid Shower this year is actually a Storm.

North America, at about 4:30AM of the 19th is about the peak time to watch for it.

I've seen estimates ranging from 2,000 to 7,000 hits per hour, and some have even said 10,000 or (during the really high times) up to 1,000 per minute.

So we aren't talking a little tiny shower this year.

Next time we'll have a storm like this will be in about 36 years, so you should want to check it out when you have the chance.

It's a shame the moon is nearly full that night, though.

Anyway, even if you can't go too far out of the city, just standing in the shadow of a tall building will give you a decent view, given the sheer magnitude of the storm.

-gleam

Re:Light Pollution

[Kaz Riprock]

Next time...in about 36 years...

Unfortunately, the next time Temple-Tuttle (the source of the debris that we're watching) comes through in 30 or so years, it will not be passing close enough to leave a good amount of dust in our orbital path to create the kind of storm we're treated to this year. In fact the next pass after that still won't be close enough. It won't be until 2098 before it passes within .0062 AUs (close enough to get a storm in the following year or three).

All of this information and some great viewing suggestions and times are attainable in a really good article at Sky and Telescope.

Re:Light Pollution

[fyonn]

But why is light at night automatically considered wasted?

because if you can see the light from space then the light on the ground going up and thats not too much use to us eon the ground. the headlights of a car go sideways and there's no way you'd be able to see that from space (well, not at thos resolutions).

dave

Re:Light Pollution

[kingOFgEEEks]

Being a natitive to Roaring Branch, PA (if you've spent much time on Rt 14, you know where that is) I can vouch that there is quite a glow, but i believe the glow you were observing was not from the gas station, but instead from the city of Williamsport.

Trust me on this one... i was watching the Leonid shower last year as well. (unfortunately, i'm not much of a photographer.)

if you're a naitive to the area, or will be back, drop me a line cnj110.nospam@nospam.psu.nospam.edu

just remove the spam protection

Re:time

[billybob2001]

From the article (effort required to read)

No matter where you live, the hours between 11:00 p.m. on Monday and dawn on Tuesday are going to be the best for spotting Leonids."

Re:time

[tigress]

UT is Universal Time, aka GMT.

Re:time

[clickety6]

But if you want to know the peak time when thinsg should (hopefully) be at their best, try :

http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/estimator.html

It's a java applet where yu can select your location and get the time of the peak (although for some reason there are no cities in Germany!)

Re:ISS?

[hottoh]

Yes. These folks seem to:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/S Sa pplications/Post/SightingData/sighting_index.html

So happens they are viewable Tuesday morning from KC MO.

If you want to count the rate - here's a help...

[wnknisely]

NASA has posted a little Palm OS applet to aid people who want to try counting the meteor rate.

You can find it here.

And information about it over on Space.com.

Re:Important telescope astronomy tips

[Melantha_Bacchae]

Most important telescope astronomy tip for meteor viewing:

Don't use a telescope.

Meteors are pretty zippy. By the time you get a telescope trained on the exact spot where a meteor was, it and twenty of its fellows will be gone. Its even hard to train a pair of binoculars on an individual meteor, unless it is a particularly slow moving fireball.

Use your naked eyes (with glasses if you need them). Spend at least 20 minutes outside in the dark before begining any serious observations. Protect your eyes from street lights, porch lights, flash lights, looking directly at the moon, any light source that is non-red and/or bright. Do not go into your brightly lit home for anything.

And if you are in the Northern hemisphere, dress warmly. It is November. Dress for 20 degrees below the actual temperature, in layers.

General: "Increase voltage"
Officer 1: "Turn power up"
Engineer: "Captain, we're registering too much voltage for safety now."
Officer 2: "Increase voltage"
Voltage sound effects, shot of Godzilla struggling, cable burns through, substation fries, Godzilla is free.
Scene from American version "Godzilla vs. Mothra" (1964)

Mothra: boldly going where no starship captain had gone before.