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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.
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My mom's going to kick you in the face!
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
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.
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
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."
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
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
The "standard" mbone tools (SDR, VIC and RAT) have become very usable, even for "Joe Average". There is an "integrated" environment, supplied by the University College of London (UCL), called "Relate", which merges everything together into a very simple, easy-to-use desktop.
The big sites could very easily multicast to mirrors - they have the connections needed and the software tools. What they don't have is anything between the ears, besides sawdust.
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)
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."
The peak IS supposed to be between 9-10pm EST (2am UT), but the shower is unviewable at that time from the US. Because of the position of the radiant (near the constellation Leo), very few meteors can be seen prior to midnight (local time) and the viewing isn't at its best until after 2am, and improves until dawn. The best part of the world for viewing that is the Middle East, Eastern and Northern Europe, and Africa. However, in the past, predictions for this particular shower have been way off base (18 hours late in the case of the 66 shower, and 12 early in case of last year's). If it arrives 3-9 hours late, the eastern US will be one of the best spots. You'll want to start viewing as early as possible (just before midnight), since (if the predictions are right)the most meteors will be falling then. However, there's no telling if this will be an amazing year like the '66 shower (dozens of meteors per second at the peak), or if it will be just a nice shower (50-200 meteors per hour). Check out http://www.leonidslive.com/
... "Give me a woman who loves beer and I will conquer the w