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Meet The Leonids

Posted by timothy on from the too-bad-about-the-mooning dept.

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."

3 of 270 comments (clear)

  1. Tip for Photography by frostgiant · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  2. Links for each time zone: by c0dedude · · Score: 5, Informative

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

    --
    Since when has this country used intellectual elite as a pejorative term?
  3. Re:This year's once-in-a-lifetime event by Big+Mark · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.