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

[simong_oz]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that the same image as this (click image for full-res) which doesn't purport to show the 'wasted' light but is being used to study urbanisation?

not trolling - just had that awesome image on my desktop for ages and recognised it straight away!

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: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."

All very good advice

[Dr Thrustgood]

But, alas, it misses out the vital ingredients:

1) Invite ladyfriend along
2) Bring blankets (can get a bit chilly)
3) Bring whisky (see 2)
4) Remember rehearsed "Isn't it beautiful, the depth, the colours. Alas, still not a match for your eyes" lines and other "romanticisms"
5) Bring protection (see 1 + 4 + 3)

You know it makes sense.

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!)

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.