Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks Early Tuesday Morning

GringoChapin writes in with coverage from Space.com on the Leonid meteor shower, adding "Folks from the United States will want to start watching at 0100 Pacific, 0400 Eastern, and those in Europe from 0100 local time until dawn." "One of the best annual meteor showers will peak in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday, and for some skywatchers the show could be quite impressive. The best seats are in Asia, but North American observers should be treated to an above average performance of the Leonid meteor shower, weather permitting." Sky and Telescope's coverage is excellent as usual, and they also have tips for beginning and advanced meteor observers.

Comments

Better than light pollution

[E IS mC(Square)]

Well, at least you still have a sky, and a chance to see meteors when weather permits. With the light pollution around NY/NJ in the USA, you can't see one until it's about to explode on you.

I was amazed to see how many stars you can see with your naked eyes when I visited the 'dark' continent of Africa few years back.

Re:Better than light pollution

[Cimexus]

I have to admit, the first time I visited the US I was shocked. Your night sky in the cities is like a milky hazy grey colour. Not black. Not dark. Can only see the brightest stars.

From the middle of my hometown (Canberra, Australia, population 340,000), you can EASILY see the Milky Way with the naked eye at night. Yet even in towns a quarter the size of that in the US, you can't see Jack. (To be specific, I remember that in Green Bay, WI, population 98,000, I could see only like 10 stars at night!). This applies even in large, sprawling metro areas. I can see much more at nighttime in Sydney (population >5 million and an urban area 60+ miles in diameter) than I can in a similar sized American city.

I am not sure why that is exactly. I think it's mostly due to the far greater wastage of lighting/energy in the US. I did notice that Americans tend to light things up at night a lot more than we do. So for instance, huge empty parking lots would be *brightly* floodlit all night in the US, whereas in Australia they'd use fewer lights (so you would get a dim area of light every 30 yards or whatever, with mostly-darkness inbetween, cf. the US where the entire surface is completely drenched in light). We also tend to turn off outdoor lights in unused areas after a particular time. Plus our streetlights almost always are designed to shine only down and have a 'hat' on top of them to avoid scattering light up into the air.

Re:Better than light pollution

[sayfawa]

I was amazed to see how many stars you can see with your naked eyes when I visited the 'dark' continent of Africa few years back.

Several years ago I was on a bus at night in the middle of Tanzania. At one point I found myself looking up into the sky at some large puffy black things. It took me several moments to realize that they were clouds, and they were blocking the starlight. I was so used to clouds being *brighter* than the rest of the sky due to reflected light from the city, not darker.

Re:What DAY?

[Dahamma]

You're either an idiot who can't figure out time zones (a sad state of affairs), or you just wanted to make a point about ambiguity in the article's various references to time (a good point to make).

Actually could be both... or maybe he's just short on the reading comprehension, since there was *nothing* ambiguous about it ("0100 Pacific, 0400 Eastern, and those in Europe from 0100 local time until dawn"). Then again, that makes your point mostly useless as well, besides the point that his point is useless ;)

Timezones

[AniVisual]

For the people who prefer to calculate using timezone offsets, the time is 0900 UTC, as reported by NASA.

Since I live in Singapore, with geographical time +0700, the meteor showers appear at 1600, which means I get to see nothing at all. However, NASA also reports another wave at 2100-2200 UTC which means that I get to watch 'em at 0400 tomorrow. (1400 PST Tuesday aftn.)

Do not go out for this show in North America

[btempleton]

There's been a lot of press on this shower, and I think it's been very misleading. The predictions say there will be no special show in North America. The special show (only mildly special) will be only visible in Asia, at 21:40 UT and about an hour around that. Only if it is after midnight at 22 UT is it worth looking for this shower. Outside of that, ie. in NA, you will see a quite mild show, the kind you can see every year from several showers including the Perseids which take place on warm August nights.

This one has a new moon, which is indeed what you want for a shower but that is all it has. Expect to see one meteor every few minutes if you are doing well.

Even the Asian shower will be minor compared to the big showers of 98-02. And they were minor compared to the mega-storm of 1966. This will be nothing like that. Meteor showers can be fun, but I fear all the press on this one will disappoint people for being misled.

Leonids

[DavMz]

Here is a list of leonids for folks who want to take the joke further.