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Here Come the Leonids 2006
yukk writes "The nights and early morning hours of November 17-19 mark the return of the Leonid meteor shower to the skies of Earth. Viewers along the northeastern coast of the United States and Canada, as well as people in Europe and western Africa might get to see a possible 'outburst' of as many as 100-600 meteors per hour. This spike in activity is predicted for 11:45 p.m. — 1:33 a.m. EST on November 18-19 (4:45 — 6:33 UT on November 19)."
We've come out of hyperspace into a meteor shower...
"Tu fui, ego eris" - Virgil
So, which is more likely:
* Buying a PS3 this weekend for MSRP
* Being struck by a meteorite this weekend
I never thought I'd have to think hard to answer that question.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
They're coming right for us!
These are the few times that I wish I didn't live in a city
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
I mean, come on people.
:)
Wake me up when one of those once-in-a-lifetime comet thingies comes along.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
NASA will broadcast its 6th annual live Leonids webcast on NASA TV. The server is usually slowed to a crawl for the night but video will be put up the next day for sure.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/
for every five meteors that hit the planet 75x.75x.75x.75x.75 or 3 to the 5th over 4 to the 5th will even hit land!
The meteor intensities mentioned are not for a "normal" Leonid shower, such as this.
:)
The meteor storms with intensities in the hunderds have a period of 33 years; the previous
storm occured on and around 2002. By now the storm is twindling to a normal Leonid
shower -- which is still one of the most amazing yearly sights for a meteor spotter.
Expect dozes of meteors per hour, and you won't feel so disappointed
A meteor shower will appear to entertain those people waiting in line for the Wii in those early morning hours. The Nintendo God is kind, indeed.
uncool, just plain uncool
So Leonid the Magnificent was just the beginning...
So, those of us on the West Coast of the U.S. get left out, hmm?
Those damn insensitive celestial clods...
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Good Luck To you
Alternate source:
it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
I kissed the first woman I ever loved for the first time while we were watching this meteor shower about ten years back. Every time it comes around I think back to that night.
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"Hey babe you wanna come over?"
"Sure... Any reason?"
"ooo nothing.. just something I have planned"
*Cue heavenly fireworks*
Do not look directly at meteor shower with remaining eye ;)
We haven't had a cloudless, starry night in weeks. The local viewing has been terrible the last few months. Waaaay too much moisture in the atmosphere. Any way, I hope it clears up for a few minutes at least. I saw this a few years ago and it was quite intense.
( a meteorite )
Have been waiting for this.
Come December our Triffid overlords will have complete control!
The closest a geek gets to a shower is when watching a meteor shower. :-)
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
"So, if you are going to observe the shower, make an effort to drive to a location that has few if any lights nearby. (That may require quite a bit of driving these days, but it should be worth it.)"
Bah! I live in the interior of Alaska. If I turn off my porch lights, the location mentioned above is approximately 1.0m from my house. Too bad I am too far West to really see anything.
Ronald said nothing. He flung himself from the room, flung himself upon his horse, and rode madly off in all directions.
The only time when this statement actually makes sense in the last week, it doesn't get modded up. I thought mod +5 for any pointless 'i for one welcome...overlords' statement had become mandatory.
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..the editors are to slow and the "news" appears after the shower has passed. This is one of the few (first?) times this info is _2_ days before the meteor shower!!!
/. editors! (No, I'm not being sarcastic.)
Congrats
I watched the show in 2002 while standing in the middle of a country road at about 4 AM. I'm in NW Ohio USA, the night was perfectly clear, and I must have seen a hundred or so meteors over the space of an hour or so. It was one of the most remarkable celestial displays I've ever seen. Alas, as another poster mentioned, we've had lousy weather here, overcast and rainy, so I'll just have to hope for a clear patch some time during the night. I'd love to watch the Leonids again.
Similis sum folio de quo ludunt venti.
Klendathu I'm not worried.
-Phil
Shoot questions, first ask later...
I live in the city, you insensitive clod!
www.timcoleman.com is a total waste of your time. Never go there.
Bush fucks up everything
us living south of the Equator. Will it be visible in Brazil?
PENAROL: Seras eterno como el tiempo y floreceras en cada primavera.
I read that headline and thought you were referring to an army of this guy .. AHH!!!
(The predictions vary depending on when Earth actually passes through the trail: earlier, fewer meteors -- later, more meteors.)
Umm, they can't figure out when the Earth passes through the meteor shower? I didn't realize the Earth's rotation and the speed of the meteors were variable!
How to listen:
You'll hear a lot of static, but every once in awhile, you'll hear a brief burst of signal. This is (probably) a distant station's signal bouncing off the ionized trail left by a meteor. Short bursts can be just a "ping"; long ones have lasted as long as a minute! (1-5 seconds is most common) Stations can be between 500 and 2000km distant. If you're really lucky you might even hear some identifying information, like a local commercial.
This also works with analog TV, primarily on Band I (in the Americas: "low-band VHF" channels 2-6). It's unlikely a burst will be long or stable enough to allow digital reception. And, of course, you have to have an antenna on your TV - the only way the meteor shower is going to affect your cable or satellite reception is if a meteor hits the satellite!
More useful links:
http://www.qsl.net/dk3xt/ms.htm
http://www.imo.net/radio
http://www.veron.nl/amrad/mslinks.htm
Wow, that's close!
Huh? In 1969, they got 2-4 meteors per minute, which is 120-240 per hour. And they say not to expect the same intensity this year: instead "only" 100-600 per hour. ?????
There are a lot of predictions from different people, who all agree pretty much on one point: the best chances for increased activity is around 4:45 GMT on the 19th, maybe a little later (up to 6:30 GMT). That's the 'easy' part...
The hard part is to predict how many meteors there will be. The more optimistic predictions say something like 2 per minute at the time of the maximum. Still a pretty good show I'd say...
The sad news is that most of the meteors are expected to be rather faint. No big fireball show like in 1998 this time... Luckily it's near new moon, so that sometimes annoyingly bright thing won't bother us this year, but still you should find a dark spot as far away as possible from bright light sources (street lights, cities, ...)
Btw, the International Meteor Organization collects observation reports. Check http://www.imo.net/visual for an explanation of the observation method and http://www.imo.net/visual/report/electronic for the report form.
Conclusion: it's nothing like the magnificient outbursts we had between 1998 and 2002 (which sometimes had thousands of meteors per hour), but it's still a good chance to see some meteors.
Most excellent! I'll likely actually be outdoors for multiple hours in the pre-dawn morning over that period of time, getting settled in for a morning deer hunt - so I'll have the opportunity to view it from out in the country.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
The Meteors watch You!
The only reason the Leonids are getting so much love right now is because it's still famous from it's most recent peak a few years ago-- at it's peak it is the most spectacular show around, but normally the Perseids are actually the better show...
:)
Ahh well, see you in 2035 I guess.
...unfortunately no one can be told what The Mat^H^H^HGoatse is...they must experience it for themselves...