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

Tip for Photography

[frostgiant]

I have done astro photos before and here is good tip when using a SLR camera:
To avoid wobbling the camera as you press the cable to start the exposure, just hold up a sheet of black paper in front of the lens. After the cable is dangling freely, remove the paper. When depressing the cable, do the same.

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

Re:Tip for Photography

[ai0524]

You probably fogged the film by not covering the viewfinder. With an SLR camera light can get to the film from the viewfinder. This is not a problem when you take pictures normally as your eye keeps light out. However when making long exposures with a tripod this isn't true. You should cover the viewfinder with the proper cap or something else when making long exposures. The web site mention in the article about making exposures probably mentions this but I cannot reach it at this time.

Have fun! Remember to take different exposures (exposure bracketing) to make sure that you get a good exposure. Expose one stop in both directions from the calculated exposure.

Re:Tip for Photography

[Anonymous Coward]

If you don't use a digital camera, make sure to clearly label your photographs as "astronomy" or "nighttime" or something like that. Many a beginning astonomy photographer has lost a batch of pictures due to the people developing it thinking they were all bad...

Sucks in Seattle

[Torinaga-Sama]

Yesterday was beautiful and I was hopeful but today is looking pretty crappy.

Damn Washington weather is depriving me of the show of a lifetime.

On a better note I will get a full nights sleep.

Links for each time zone:

[c0dedude]

Eastern Time Zone
Western Time Zone
Mountain Time Zone
Pacific Time Zone

Re:This year's once-in-a-lifetime event

[Big Mark]

It really IS this time. It's gonna be a big one, as the trail of comet debris (left kindly by Tempel-Tuttle, IIRC) that forms this shower is really, really close this year, and it won't be remotely as good for another thirty years or so after the debris trails start getting further away from the Earth's orbit. Not exactly once-in-a-lifetime, but still. I like meteors.

Speaking of which, it's 10:30PM here. I'm off to the beach to watch things and drink flasks of tea.

Other event will make viewing difficult

[DalTech]

Other that light pollution which will make viewing difficult for most city dwellers, we will have to contend with a full moon. Your best bet is to look towards the northwest or southwest to diminish the glare of the moon.

Crappy Moon

[Keighvin]

As has already been pointed out, there will be a full moon. Not only that, but at the peak viewing hours for the western continent inhabitants (especially those in North America) that pesky full moon will be almost exactly centered in the most active region for viewing.

Only the best and brightest will be visible, and though there's predicted to be more of them this year than typically the effect will be diminished by the lunar glow to a fairly typical rendition.

Last year was, for me, unfortunately...

[wirefarm]

I just got back in (Tues. morning here in Japan,) after having not seen a single one. (Worst combination of time, location, moon, clouds.)

Last year was amazing... :-(

Re:This year's once-in-a-lifetime event

[Innominate Recreant]

The next time Earth will pass through a thick part of the Tempel-Tuttle comet's tail will be in 2099. There will still be Leonid showers every year, just not as spectacular until then.

Here's the site to give you the best time to view

[Phoenix-kun]

Go to this site to determine the best viewing time for your location and the predicted count.

Re:This year's once-in-a-lifetime event

[EvanED]

>>and it won't be remotely as good for another thirty years

Or 90. Next time the show will be this good is 2099.

one in five

[Veteran]

For any individual viewer observing the Meteor Shower is a safe event; the risk of damage from a meteor is much lower than the chance of being eaten by a bear during the same time frame.

However - for the Earth as a whole that is not true. If one of the meteors which broke off the comet is only 50 or 60 meters in diameter the result would be an impact similar to Tunguska in the last century; a 20 to 30 megaton blast capable of destroying a city and killing millions.

The chance that we will lose a city somewhere on earth to an impact event during this century is about one in five.

Re:one in five

[snowbike]

Don't worry chicken little, with the Leonids you are really quite safe.

For the Leonids (which is the subject of the article, after all), even a large meteor will burn up in the atmosphere. The Leonid entry velocity is 70 km/s. Because the composition is mostly ice, meaning the Leonids have a lower density (approx. 1) than a typical meteor, and because of the high velocity, the Leonids burn up very quickly (relative to a "typical meteor"). The Leonids maintain a nearly constant velocity as they enter the atmosphere, and nearly any size Leonid will burn up by ~85 km altitude at the lowest. A more typical meteor, moving at 20 km/s with a density of approx. 3 will both slow down as it passes through the atmosphere (if large enough, it will slow down to the terminal velocity of any body falling in the atmosphere, and basically be in "free fall"). And for a typical meteor, 100 metric tons at "source" will be 1 kg on the ground.

I'm really a homebrewer, I just play a scientist at work.

ps Best wishes for a good storm tonight!

Get out and look!

[Jim.McGinness]

Here in Southern New Hampshire the skies are clear even if they're not dark (full moon plus all the man-made light). I just saw 5 meteors in about 15 minutes of watching, 3 whose trails stretched nearly halfway across the sky and the other 2 were little ones.

Sorry about those of you whose weather is working against them. I'm going back out to watch after grabbing another couple of layers of blanket.

Re:This year's once-in-a-lifetime event

[CoolVibe]

*sigh* the big storm would be optimal here tonight at 4:50 AM. Well, I stood outside about 15 minutes before that. F**king thick clouds everywhere. It sucks to live in the netherlands :(

Re:This year's once-in-a-lifetime event

[passthecrackpipe]

Well, spent the early part of the morning on the roof. I'm in the middle of the Med, and there was a clear sky. roused the wife and kid as well, and we all stayed watching. There was significant light pollution, but the show was still okay - my boy loved it (2.5 yrs) - kept running around shouting "Fireworks!, Fireworks!" ;-) - I counted maybe 1 per minute.