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Leonid Meteor Shower Tonight
The annual Leonid meteor shower hits tonight, as the Earth moves through the orbital path of a comet. The show is exceptionally good every 33 years, and in 1966 it was so dramatic some people thought the world was coming to an end. No one knows how it will look this year, so keep your fingers crossed. You
don't need a telescope,
just
warm clothes, patience, and clear skies.
The Leonids'
unpredictability
make it worth going out as soon as it's dark, but the peak is supposed to be between 11 PM and 1 AM (EST?). If it's cloudy, check out
NASA's weather-balloon webcam.
The hint to seeing this in NYC is to not necessarily have the lights on. When you look up, make sure there are no lights in your vision, including peripheral.
---
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ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only
-=-=-=-=-
-=-=-=-=-
My mom's going to kick you in the face!
I've honestly never seen a meteor shower. I definitally hope to see one. Once, my super-geek and super boring science teacher tried to get my 8th grade science class watch a meteor shower, but there were like 2 people out of 91 that showed up!!
NPR ran a spot on the meteor shower this morning. One thing they mentioned is that hard-core astronomers are heading to Europe and the Middle East because that is where the center of the storm will be at peak intensity. They said that best viewing will be between 9-10pm EST, and the possiblity exists for up to 1000 shooting stars per hour. The main subject was how vulerable the sattelites in orbit are going to be. Tune in your favorite NPR station today at 4pm, they should rerun the spot.
In (I believe, I may be off by a year or two) 1833, Abraham Licoln was awakened during the wee hours to be told that the final judgement had arrived. Apparently, God was pretty pissed. The Leonids were putting on one of the best shows in (Western) recorded history, and they had no idea how to deal with it.
Second, this will STILL not be multicast! Even NASA, who have multicast facilities, won't interrupt some pre-recorded multicast which they've been repeating every 10 minutes since mid-day, for the meteor shower of the millenium. Last year, all of the sites broadcating webcams and RealAudio links were overloaded to the point of collapsing. BUT THEY WILL NOT LEARN!!! What is WRONG with these people?!?!?! The meteors should land on these idiot's thick skulls and thwack some sense into them!
(Can you tell I like multicast technology, and DON'T like horrible lag?)
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
And don't trust the predicted peak time too much. Last year it was about 18 hours earlier than predicted. We had an excellent display in Scotland.
I used SkyMap to check the position of Leo tonight, and it shows that that constellation will be below the horizon tonight on the US eastern seaboard. I think our European geek brethren may be able to see it, though?
Injured geek wins against Mattel!
From what I heard, some locals in the Midwest (US) called up the police and reported "planes on fire" last night. At U.S. Fighter pilots said that they were privvy to some great fireworks from the shower. And, since it's not in the FAQ: How do you post a new message (new thread)?
I saw one of them on my way home from work last nite (7pm, Columbus, Ohio). It streaked across the sky, and eventually brokeup into smaller pieces that each streaked and then faded into nothingness. (and yes I was cursing that I didn't have my Oly2000 digital camera with me at the time) I've watched meteor showers before, but I never saw one this big, bright, or with such a long tail.
http://slashdot.org/~tf23/journal
Anyone going to be on 2m or 70cm tonight??? I know I will :)
KE4PJW
--fatboy
There was already a pretty good display of this last night. Happened around 5:30pm CST. News stations, newspapers, the Coast Guard, and airports were all notified because it was so spectacular. Some people thought planes were falling out of the sky. Others reported to have seen UFOs. If it's better tonight than last night, I'll be watching again.
On the bar of buttons and drop downs between the article and the commentary is a button labelled "reply" this is to reply directly to the article, thus making a new thread.
reply to the original post, not to users' comments. (same line as "threshold," "change," you'll find "reply")
I am, therefore you think.
Because we had neglected a small part of the physics - the meteor stream is in resonance with Jupiter.
This year we think we've got it figured - everyone in europe should be in for a good show.
If that's the one that went west-to-east, it wasn't a Leonid (for sure). It was almost certainly a piece of space junk.
--
Advertisers: If you attach cookies to your banner ads,
Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once... the bitch.
I can see it now.
"Hey, aren't those meteorites supposed to me MUCH smaller?"
FOOM FOOM FOOM FOOM!
Later
Erik Z
My car!
Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
Note that the ZHR is a /theoretical/ maximum that would be seen by an observer if the radiant (the line of comet's orbit, ie the place in the sky where the meteors appear to radiate away from) were directly overhead. Actual observed rates are always lower.
Hints and tips for observing :
Finally, don't be too disappointed if you "only" get a ZHR of a few hundred. Last year's observations allowed significantly better understanding of the separate streams of debris coming off the parent comet. Predictions are for a relatively quiet year next year, but much higher ZHRs in 2001 and 2002.
Clear skies, all !
North American Meteor Network /VERY/ high traffic at the moment !
Meteorobs mailing list -- NB
--
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
Hopefully a meteor will gently smack the Hubble and fix it. :-)
I'm sure "SlashdotMedia" will improve on all the wonders that Dice Holdings blessed us all with
I just pray that the shower doesn't suffer the slashdot effect. I'd hate to stare at empty sky for hours just to learn that the shower crashed under the load when all the east coast geeks watched.
Anyone know whether the show will be visible from Europe, specifically the UK?
See also :
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Leoniods 99 updates.
American Meteor Society
This is X/posted w/out permission (sorry Marc! )
\a
I N T E R N A T I O N A L M E T E O R O R G A N I Z A T I O N
1999 Leonids: Rapid Information Dissemination
=============================================
Dear meteor observer,
>From earlier communications, you have learned that the IMO is setting
up a communication network to obtain reliable information as soon as
possible after the event in the morning of November 18. We invite you
to contribute to this effort.
First of all, we want to point out you must DISTINGUISH between the
USUAL OBSERVATIONAL REPORTS, such as collected by the IMO's Visual
Commission, and which may be used for detailed, global analyses, and
the "EXPRESS REPORT" described below which serves as sole purpose the
compilation of a rough but reliable picture of the activity within
hours after the event.
The EXPRESS REPORT should have the following format:
Meteo R. Observer
Fireball City (45N 10E)
Time Interval (UT) Lim. Magn. Nr. of Leonids Remarks (if any)
-----------------------------------------------
01:15-01:30 5.8 27 None
01:30-01:45 5.9 56 None
01:45-02:00 6.1 156 None
.
.
.
To the extent possible, bin your observations for this "express report"
in time interval of 15 MINUTES.
(Again, the full report of your observations will be different from
this express report, as shorter intervals are required as well as
magnitude distributions and some additional data - see the earlier
posted article with visual observing hints - but the above data
suffice for the purpose indicated.)
If you wish to collaborate with the IMO in this respect, please send
your express report for the night of November 17/18 ONLY (or, of course,
for any unexpected activity you might happen to witness)
*** IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE OBSERVATION *** to the following email
addresses:
wgn@imo.net
gyssens@hcoss.uia.ac.be
The latter is a back-up address in case Web-site access to www.imo.net
would prove to slow down our computer too much. This back-up address
will be active only on November 17 and 18!
Thank you in advance for any collaboration we may receive!
Marc Gyssens
International Meteor Organization
--
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
It SHOULD be visible from Europe...
;(
But!
Looking at the current infrared satellite images (http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pub/s at-images/D2.JPG) it's not looking good...
The sky is way too cloudy... too bad
Maybe England, Spain or France has some chance.
I live just outside Chicago and the lights are not very bright. Last night, (6:15pm) I saw what I thought (at the time) was a very large green and gold firework flying across (from west to east). It was very large and lasted for about 20-30 seconds. I didn't realize that it was a piece of a comet until I heard reports on the radio that people from Central Illinois to Wisconsin had seen the same thing. Did anyone else it? Any ideas on the size of it?
c7five
make $1,000,000 a year;
have at least 5 Playboy playmates after my body at all times;
have raised my IQ to the viscinity of 250;
can eat a dozen donuts at every meal and stay slim.
I hope to catch the Leonids this year, and if I do, I'll wish that I:
get rid of all that money that attracts unwanted friends;
stop going out with these superficial bimbos with silicone implants;
get a little dumber, because worrying about special groups of non-linear differential equations as applied to a parametrised space-time tensor is no fun.
I'll keep the fat-free donut rampage capacity, though!
"The wages of sin is death but so is the salary of virtue, and at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays."
YES. On 147.585 per CA-APRS amiling list. I'm using the KPC 9612 setup described in QST -- w/ Auto QSL. 5-element beam pointed NW, approx 50 watts - KF6FLJ, Los Angeles
I basically was getting out of work, looked up and saw this huge greenish fireball. it then seemed to split into 3 parts leaving a long trail behind it and was heading towards lake michigan. It took around 30 seconds to pass over me and out of sight. I was like 'whoa' and then heard people on a local radio station getting calls about it. It was really cool.
Good news is that I think I could live with that image as my memory of the meteor shower, so that means I can actually get some sleep tonight!
--
Gonzo Granzeau
Gonzo Granzeau
"Nothing the god of biomechanics wouldn't let you into heaven for.." -Roy Batty
leonids?
.. might be the end of times.
anybody else think that this is a sign of the second coming of jesus?
plenty of meteor shower, and earthquakes too
That is when the sky above you is moving *forward* through the solar system. It has *nothing* to do with time zones, GMT, UTC, or anything else.
Who the devil is mcdougal? Do you hate Scotts?
Wow gee mister can I be stupid loosers like you and Mick when I grow up?
I was walking home from the 'L' in Evanston, IL , and watched the thing streak over Lake Michigan... Was it just me or did it look really green??
They also have a story saying the viewing prospects are good.
Damn, I submited this tuesday and it has been rejected... Seems like Jamie stoole my post ;-) anyways, here is a link to a Java applet that can estimate your peek view: http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/estimator.html
I personally, will probably head down to Battery Park City and camp out on one of the multiple lawns nearby Stuyvesant High School.
Yes, it was very bright green with gold trails coming off of it. Anyone know what element would burn bright green?
c7five
No, and you shouldn't either. This particular meteor storm has recurred every year, with peaks every 33 years. The last peak was 1966, and was by all accounts spectactular.
If you're worried about the conjunction of this with the turn of the millenium, you should relax on this as well. The christian counting of years was calculated by Dennis the Short, in the mid 500s at the direction of the Pope. He worked off of events of the time that modern bible scholars and historians now know were inaccurate. The best calculations show that the birth of Jesus was 4 years earlier than Dennis calculated. Thus, the millenium really turned in 1996. You missed it.
...phil
...phil
"For a list of the ways which technology has failed to improve our quality of life, press 3."
Took the trash out and looked up and there was a fireball that was just a bit dimmer than the moon. It was in the North sky and its tail stretched longer than my house is wide - in my field of view, that is. It was very blazing and lasted a long time. Neatest celestial event I've seen since those impacts with Jupiter (? I think) a few years back. COOOL!
Go Purdue!
The "Peak Time" being mentioned is when the comet's orbit intersects that of the Earth. From experience we know that the dust cloud is not always present at that point. The 33-year cycle is from several past observations -- the math is still being worked on.
As was already mentioned, the dust cloud was 12-18 hours off of last year's orbital intersection. Plus or minus 12 covers a 24-hour period. Youse watches the skies, youse takes youse chances.
My 4-month old daughter decided to wake up at 12:30am, and I went out and watched Leo for about 20 minutes. I saw 6 Leonid meteors in that time (and two non-Leonid).
I realize that as we enter the debris path this number will rise, but I thought people might be curious what last night was like.
That's silly, there wasn't ever a _first_ coming
Maybe the next Chinese or Mayan millenium is the relevant date...
Yeah, I live near Cleveland and they made a big broohaha about hundreds of people spottin that 'meteor' last night and how the phone lines at the News station were flooded. I wish I had seen it myself. I always miss out on things like that! Bah Humbug! One little 5 year old girl that drew a crayon representation of the event said that the 'head' was blue and the tail was like a dotted red line. I was surprised, but someone did manage to get a video of it with their camcorder. I was hoping maybe it was an alien spacecraft (being an avid xfiles fan) but when I saw the video I could tell it was nothing more than some space crap disintegrating in the atmosphere (maybe the hubble?). Oh well, I'm still hoping. I'll be out looking tonight. Think about it. If an alien spacecraft did want to spy on us without our knowing it, tonight would be the perfect night because they could use the meteor shower as cover.
I'm using the KPC 9612 setup described in QST...
Do you have a link to more info about this setup? Or can you tell me what issue of QST it was in? It sounds really interesting...I wonder if I could cobble something together before tonight yet...
Of course, if your locale is swaddled in clouds, you're SOL. Try again Thursday....or next year, or 2001, both of which should be as good or better.
In other news, astrophysicists have announced that they now know what all that dark matter is: it's stupidity.
Copper. Which pretty much goes with the fact that it was some space junk.
post that article with a blank subject?
.. how did I read it!!! hehehehehe!
Moreover
Maybe the next Chinese or Mayan millenium is the relevant date...
Yep
I hope the sky won't be slashdotted tonight with too many people looking up at once.
[We don't come from a planet. We come from a grid sector.]
Sorry, folks. The entire Leonids meteor shower just crashed into the moon due to a mixup in conversion between the English and Metric system.
* You don't need binoculars or a telescope. The show is over the whole sky, and you'll miss a lot if you use them.
However, if you want to try to get a "close up look", remember to never put your face to bare metal in the cold.
* Never lie on the bare ground. It will seep your body heat many times faster than the air will.
46. The Hobo smiles, his eyes glaze over, and he burps. "Beware the man who has lived longer than the Wasteland."
Freaking A! Everyone saw it but me. My mom saw it last night too! She describes it exactally as you do. DAMNIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lets say that it is, and in the near future God will return to earth in Human form. What the hell are we going to do about it besides tremble in terror and die?? Say a few quick Hail Mary's and ask for forgivness for all those sins we have collected before God comes down to pass judgement? By now it is too late to even care because our demise would be inevitable.
Is it possible to take the source to a recent milestone (or even daily build) and compile it against glibc2.0? I'd love to try mozilla out, as it's been a while, but am only running glibc2.0, not 2.1, for the time being. Thanks, Chris
Sorry about that, wrong story (just goes to show you having too many windows open at once can be a probem...).
It's in the most recent issue -- I guess you'd find it in www.arrl.org You need a password to see the online articles. This requires you know the code from your QST mailing label. Of course if you had that you'd probably already have the magazine too.
There are several reports on sci.astro.amateur about a large bolide in the midwest travelling NW->NE and being visible for 10-15 (some said 20) seconds. It was apparently an Earth-grazer, which accounts for its long duration. Whether it was a Leonid is in question (one observer puts the origin in Serpens Caput), but who cares - sounds spectacular from all accounts. I'm jealous.
Admit nothing, deny everything and make counter-accusations.
It will be fairly impressive. So impressive that the news was reporting that police stations were being deluged with calls reporting alien invasions and crashing planes. Man, I love this state.
Loosers? Loosers? You idiot, it's LOSERS!! Wait no longer moron, you're already a loser!
Idiot!
as it breaks up near Cincinnati.
click here
Admit nothing, deny everything and make counter-accusations.
There are some wonderful websites already up discussing the shower (possible storm)
See http://www.leonidslive.com for NASA's webcast and frequently updated meteor counts. BTW- there are some great tips on observing at this site, plus a number of star charts and data sheets, should you want to submit your observations.
Two other sites that I like are http://www.leonidstorm.com and http://www.space.com
Maybe we'll get lucky this year. Next year it looks like the Moons phase and location is going to really hamper any observations.
In illa quae ultra sunt
As I was driving home from work last night, I saw a string of fireballs streaking through the sky in the vicinity of Dulles Airport (I was on RT28 heading towards Sterling, Va). They were larger than any I've ever seen before and lasted for nearly a minute before burning out. It made my night.
Chris
> UFO is because they have an offical report
--
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
I saw it from the NW suburbs, from my car heading east, a little after 6:00. I saw green also. It came from SW heading NE on a slow flat trajectory low in the sky. It was solid, then broke into about 3 spaced pieces, then disappeared. I'll bet I watched this thing for 15 seconds. REALLY NEAT! Where did it go, I wonder?
remember the day of the comet and day of the triffids!!!????
I'm running for hills, its NOT safe!!!
LOL :-)
The weather was not good, so I didn't go to a dark site, however I got to see a fair chunk (perhaps 1/4) of the sky through a hole in clouds from 4 am to 4:15 am NZDT this morning (=Nov 17 15:00 UT). I saw no meteors during this time.
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
This should be visible everywhere in the world. The key is to be looking while you are on the forward facing part of the earth as it passes through the particle cloud. This generally means looking between 1 am and dawn your time.
The view is supposed to the best from Israel and Spain.They showed a NASA aircraft getting ready for observation here (Israel).
The article says it will happen at 12:30 "local time" without ever explaining what it is. What the fuck do they mean by "local time"??? When is it (EST)???
"is supposed to be between 11 PM and 1 AM (EST?)"
As I read the articles, the peak is expected to be EARLIER than that time, but below the horizon. The point in the sky that these radiate from rises about 11 PM local time, and the moon sets about 1 AM providing better contrast in a darker sky.
In the sky, the peak is 4:15 UT (GMT)(with lots of hand-waving about +/- as much as 12 hours). In North America, you need to wait till Leo rises, and perhaps till the moon sets, so you can see what's left of a waning show.
It seems that people from the Midwest US to Canada to Washington DC saw the firewall last night as a bright green streak that lasted for about 15-20 seconds. This is very large area for people to be seeing such an object all at the same time. Someone commented that bright green flame would mean that it was made out of copper. Anyone have any reports on how big it was? Or what it was? Is there a ton of space junk that big just floating around out there waiting to fall to Earth?
c7five
(Of course, if the sky is anything close to clear (ie not actually raining), I'll be out in the nearest open and away from lights area hoping for a show!)
Apparently, NASA is trying to catch a comet.
I wonder if this is going to actually work, or if it will destroy the whole ballon, and then the millions of potential viewers of the live meteor shower will be in for a real treat!
The Upside to that is, of course, that I don't have to worry about it being cold outside. I don't even need a jacket at night yet!
Got HTML? Want LaTeX? Try html2latex
in the northeast Bronx is really large and isolated and barely has any lights. I used to pass through it at all hours on foot between college and home back in the early 1980's. Never had any problems, but then there are easier targets than a 6'1" 20-year old distance runner who is just wearing ratty running clothes.
how did you post without a subject?
ok guys it's not tonight. at least not here. it's on november 18th. heh. i feel like a dog trainer placing your noses in your own sh*t. :-) nothing mean. just pointing it out.
check the facts, and do not trust the looneys that try and get their news posted.
but i'm glad i was posted or i wouldn't have known. i mean it's not every day i get to see pretty lights flash in the sky without help.
dead angel
veni, vidi, fece
dead angel
i am strange people. -me
spreading linux lovin' since 1998!
It's unfortunate this wasn't posted earlier. By the time it appeared on Slashdot, I'd already missed it. I suppose it's my own fault for living in this timezone and not in America.
harshbutfair: you know it makes sense
www.harshbutfair.org
Noticable shortage of webcams compared to last year. Heh.
--
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
I saw it, too, during the northward leg of my evening jog, and instinctively looked left for the kids shooting off fireworks. It was *that big*. Smaller than the moon - about the size and color of a motorcycle headlight a couple of hundred yards away. Moved about as fast, too, with a nice orangey tail a couple of degrees long, which flickered occasionaly as debris broke off... It took about 8 seconds to cruise from left to right. I honestly waited for a bang, thinking that it might have been a plane on fire and crashing :)... I looked around that night and this morning, but I couldn't find any news about it - until now! Thank God for Slashdot!