Meet The Leonids

Kathy Miles writes "The Leonid meteor shower is promising to be a 'once in a lifetime event.' It's not hard to photograph meteors, a simple 35mm camera that you can lock open the shutter on works fine. Here's complete instructions for 35mm, video and digital cameras.And, on the same site is information such as lore and myth, best way to watch meteors and times and skymaps for all US timezones. Happy Meteor watching!" And Geert Barentsen writes "As the adrenaline for the final Leonid meteor storm (November 19th) rises, one site seems to do a call to everybody to count the meteor activity and help science. With a few thousand meteors predicted per hour, it's going to be a busy night for true geeks :-)" Kevin Smolkowski writes "For the second year in a row, NASA will have Live Coverage of the 2002 Leonid meteor storm on Monday. Perfect for those of you surrounded by city lights. The all night show is hosted by NASA astronomers. They'll offer observing tips, answer phone calls from sky watchers, and tour the skies with a video camera located at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama." Update: 11/18 22:40 GMT by T : McGravin writes "Everyone should also keep an ear on the extraplanetary visitors, too. I'm going to go add some ear-flaps to the tin foil helmet that protects my brain from them, so I can hear the meteors."

Comments

Once in a lifetime like the last time

[uberstool]

when I spent three hours laying on my back on a sleeping bag looking into the cloudless northern Arizona sky only to see eight super no-big-deal falling stars. What a waste of time due to net hype - I can't believe I'm going to do it again.

Re:Is it just me?

[BrianGa]

Yeah...but this year, it's really once in a lifetime!

Re:Hmm...

[Nefrayu]

I hope you never watched him shower...

Finally!

[FPhlyer]

Everyone said I was crazy when I moved 30 miles out from the city. Now, with no city lights, I'll have a perfect view of the shower! Won't all of my friends be jealous! ...Oh yeah. None of my friends care about meteor showers...

Taking photos.

[James_G]

A very wise thing for you to do is to go out on a clear night BEFORE the Leonids peak and experiment with film and find a good place to set up.

Well shit. It's a bit late for that now. Oh well, I'll try and remember that in 30 years when the next one comes around.

Re:Sucks in Seattle

[kevcol]

There's still time- it's only 2:30PM- get your windbreaker and sweatpants and climb Mt. Rainier to get above the clouds!

What a bunch of sickos!

[L. VeGas]

Well, I have to admit that watching Leonid Breezhnev take a shower is not something that you can see everyday, but I think I'll pass anyway, thank you.

Wrong audience

[flatface]

Asking Slashdotters.. To go outside.. I don't know if this is an insult or a mistake.

Damn TV befuddled kids!

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Can you see the sky?
2. Is it not cloudy?
3. Is it 2:00AM?
4. ????
5. Profit?

I'm impressed

[sys49152]

For the second year in a row, NASA will have Live Coverage of the 2002 Leonid meteor storm

I wonder how they did this last year. Or did Nasa finally perfect its tachyon transceiver?

Uhhh..

[unicron]

...at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama.

"Uh..oh, I did it wrong again. "Break one-nine." Houston! It's dark as crap up here. Ed's done busted out the capsule window trying to hit a satelite with a beer bottle and you need to instruct us on unclogging the toilet because they ate all the freeze-dried chili and they're tore up something fierce.

poor kid

[Anonymous Coward]

Anybody notice the stock photo in the NASA page? This picture. I think it's supposed to representing watching TV, but it's really a sad social commentary.

Here's a young boy, ready to go outside and move and run and play. He's got his cap on, and he's got his football under his arm.

But instead of choosing to play in the sun and use the arms and legs nature gave him to enjoy himself, he sits sullen and emotionless in front of a TV.

He chooses the bland garbage spewed forth by the corporate-run media, enticing him to stay on the couch, not to question authority, not take care of his health. They hope to sell him fast food, video games, and heart medication when he grows up.

Really quite sad.

Alternate explanation #1:

This poor little girl wants to play with her dolls and talk with her friends. But her father is a violent man, who regrets never having had a son before his wife's untimely demise. He forces her to hold a football and watch the game on TV. If she resists, she is soundly beaten. She quietly assumes the role of the son her father never had.

Really quite sad.

Alternate Explanation #2:

It's raining and the game was just cancelled.

Really quite sad.

Re:poor kid

[Subcarrier]

Alternate Explanation #3:

This poor little alien is trapped. It has chosen the most innocuous, uninteresting, and non-threatening shape it can imagine, that of an indigenous life form with the appearance of box emitting a peaceful glow.

And yet the threatening native steadfastly refuses to wander away, instead choosing to squat and stare at it in ominous silence, fingering the obvious weapon tucked under its left upper appendage and no doubt mentally rehearsing several of its favorite ways of committing murder, each more violent and gruesome than the rest.

The little alien is gazing back in desperation, afraid to make the smallest move.

Really quite sad.

Re:I hate when he/hse/it does that !

[Anonymous Coward]

there is no god, you silly fool

hahah...

[TheGreenGoogler]

"For the second year in a row, NASA will have Live Coverage of the 2002 Leonid meteor storm on Monday" How exactly can you have 2 years of coverage of the 2002 Leonid meteor storm?

Looking For Jon Katz: +1, Patriotic

[Anonymous Coward]

Please stay alert for any traces of the former
Jon Katz orbiting the earth as a result of his
unauthorized visit to Afghanistan to interview
the famous Commodore-64 user and Geraldo Rivera.

P.S. Wasn't it George W. Bush (Even Less than
G. H. W. Bush) who challenged the world with
"bin Laden: Dead or Alive"? Thanks for nothing
Tom Daschle and the Democratic (sold out) party!

Cheers,
Woot

Phew!

[Subcarrier]

Asking Slashdotters.. To go outside.. I don't know if this is an insult or a mistake.

So that's what this is all about? All this talk about a shower was making me nervous.

Re:Links for each time zone:

[BeeShoo]

I live in the Central Time Zone, you insensitive clod! ;-)

Central Time Zone

Once in a lifetime event:

[Anonymous Coward]

Kathy Miles writes

A woman visits slashdot.

Re:Links for each time zone:

[ilyag]

3:23 to 3:47 AM MST??

Everything in this country is so darn early... Can't they move the show back three hours? That may increase the turnout (and the profit) 1000%!

Re:See this while you can.

[EvanED]

"if it's clear"

*damn 80% cloud cover... :walks away grumbling*

Re:Hmm...

[Anonymous Coward]

In Soviet Russia, Leonid watches YOU!!!

Re:Tip for Photography

[Savatte]

Also, for anyone with a Sony DV camera, the AE Candel Light mode works great for filming the showers

I don't know about you, but i'd rather use one of those x-ray/night vision filters when filming at the showers.

Day of the Triffids

[OmniGeek]

Me, I think I'll spend the night in a windowless room and come out in the morning to a world full of people blinded by the mysterious alien rays, but I'll have to watch out for the Triffids roaming the landscape eating all and sundry.

Of course, if John Wyndham had written Day of the Triffids after the advent of the Internet, he'd have used geeks as his accidentally-sighted protagonists instead of a bandaged hospital patient. The hardcore geeks will probably be taking advantage of the bandwidth everyone else isn't using 'cause they're all outside skywatching, and will catch their meteors on the NASA site ;-)