Leonid Meteor Storm

[SVXphile]

Enough staring at the Pleiades....lets see some REAL action! For those who have been preoccupied with the roar of the crowd and the smell of the greasepaint, the Leonid meteor shower is scheduled to be a WHOPPER late tonight and mostly in the early hours of Sunday morning. So wind up the old rooster for an early wakeup call, 'cause the best seeing is supposed to be from 2 to 5AM! Not that you can't see something near midnight, but the Earth turns into the oncoming debris AFTER midnight. Put on your long johns, get thee to a dark area away from bright lights, give your eyes about a half-hour to fully adjust, get that lawn chair back out of storage, get a Thermos of your favorite beverage ( no wine for you Ron....you'll be seeing things, but they won't be meteors!) and set back and enjoy the show. Those in the know say tonights fireworks will be the best in decades and maybe decades to come. The Earth will pass through several old comet debris trails tonight, so some periods during the night will be more spectacular than others, but many fireballs are expected along with hundreds....perhaps THOUSANDS of meteors per hour. For an update on when the peaks will appear, check out this website:

www.spaceweather.com

...also, for general info:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/653572.asp?pne=msn

The Leonids will seem to be radiating from the constellation Leo in the south-southeast. The website has a map. Lets hope for a great show! Don

[Mr. Pockets]

My wife and I have been planning to view the shower tonight. We'll be getting up at some horrible hour (0200-0300) and driving north of town to a 'metro-park.' A UofM group called 'Lowbrow Astronomy' sets up for this every year.

I'm really looking forward to it. I don't know for sure that I've ever even seen a meteor.

I'll have the camera set up. If any of the photographers in the group could help me with settings, I'd appreciate it. I'm hoping the sky will be dark enough to just set the shutter on 'bulb' and leave it open for several seconds at a time.

If it is dark enough, is there any reason this won't work?

And if it's not perfectly dark, what should I do to try to catch several on film?

Thanks.

[SVXphile]

Sounds like you will have a great time tonight! Here is a part of the above-mentioned website that tells about trying to photograph the meteors...

http://www.spaceweather.com/meteors/...phototips.html

Good luck!! Don

[Aredubjay]

Originally posted by Mr. Pockets
My wife and I have been planning to view the shower tonight. We'll be getting up at some horrible hour (0200-0300) and driving north of town to a 'metro-park.' A UofM group called 'Lowbrow Astronomy' sets up for this every year.

I'm really looking forward to it. I don't know for sure that I've ever even seen a meteor.

I'll have the camera set up. If any of the photographers in the group could help me with settings, I'd appreciate it. I'm hoping the sky will be dark enough to just set the shutter on 'bulb' and leave it open for several seconds at a time.

If it is dark enough, is there any reason this won't work?

And if it's not perfectly dark, what should I do to try to catch several on film?

Thanks.

Luckily, I already live in the country. Once I turn off my "pagoda" lights, the sky will be completely dark. There's no moon tonight, so, it should be a spectacular show. Shari said I could *try* and wake her up. So did my daughter. Hmmmm. Neither of them are night owls, I don't know if they'll make it, but, I told them I'd *try.*

[SVXphile]

I just got back inside from my first look outside. I was out from 1:20 to 1:50 and it is perfectly clear overhead with slight fog to the east. I saw at least 15 meteors....two really bright ones...one looking very much like a 4th of July roman candle with a glowing trail that lasted in the sky for 15 to 20 seconds. It is 36 degrees out, so I'm going to nap awhile at check again around 4AM...One of the charts shows a strong possibility for lots of meteors betweeen 4 and 5 AM..... Don

[SVXphile]

Jean and I just finished our viewing....4 to 5:45AM....and the only reason we stopped was because we were frozen! What a show! Meteors everywhere....in all directions...groups of 2, 3, or 4 flashing together. Some going off like flashbulbs. One left a trail in the sky for minutes. I see on spaceweather.com that out in California they are seeing one per second! We shared a hilltop with our teacher/neighbors, laid back in lawn chairs and an old army cot, cookies and coffee. I hope everyone got a chance to see some of the peak around 5AM; it was definitely worth the chill! Don

[Chris]

I just got back as well. Took the SVX on a bit of an off road rally to the top of a peak about 30 miles from here. WOW! What a view and what a spectacular show. We watched from about 2am till 4:45am. It was time to warm up by then! brrrrrr

Did I mention how well the SVX handles off road!? It was just well traveled dirt roads, but it hugged the curves and grabbed the road like the tires were coated in glue. I need to get TWO more SVX's. My current daily driver, one to turn into a race car at the 1/4 mile track, and one to turn into a rally car! I suppose I could just do with one more and two different sets of suspension

[Mr. Pockets]

Somewhere around 9 or 10 it got foggy here.

It still is.

I missed it all.

And I'm hacked.

[Aredubjay]

A thick fog set in all around my house around midnight. Fortunately, it was like someone cut a window to the sky right above my house. It gave me a pretty wide view. I lay in my front yard in my lawn chair, with two coats and a caraffe of coffee. I started watching at midnight. I saw some magnificent displays between midnight and 12:30. Then, sporadic displays ranging from quick white streaks to wide blue stripes thereafter. Unfortunately, I couldn't hold my eyes open any more by 4:15 (CDT). I think it was around 3:30 when I saw, what I think, was the highlight of my viewing experience: three fireballs in succession on the same trejectory, much like the roman candle Don described. From my vantage point, it was pretty cool, but not what I'd call "Spectacular." Of course, as I said, some of the sky was obscured by the fog, so, knowing my "good fortune," the most spectacular displays were probably in that fog. I did see a few muted flashes in the fog that were pretty cool, though. All in all, I guess it was worth not feeling my nose or toes for a while.

[Mr. Pockets]

I'm glad you had such a good time, Randy. <grumble, mumble>

When the alarm went off at 3AM and I still couldn't see the lights on the house across the street, I figured driving the 30min to the aforementioned event was a bad idea.

[Mr. Pockets]

By the way, now's as good a time as any to recruit. Hopefully the show last night got a few people interested in looking up.

Go download the Seti@Home client to run on your home PC. It doesn't get in the way of any other applications and it looks friggin' cool to boot.

I just passed 3,000 workunits a couple weeks ago. I have donated over 4.4 years of CPU time and it has taken me VERY little effort. Maybe five minutes every couple months, now that I'm not running it on fifteen Lockheed Martin machines. This was against their policies, but screw 'em - they screwed me every day. But I'm not bitter. The moral of the story is don't run it on your work PC unless you have the permission of the (probably evil) IT staff.

Go get it. All of your smart friends are doing it. The URL is in my sig.

[Chris]

Originally posted by Mr. Pockets
By the way, now's as good a time as any to recruit. Hopefully the show last night got a few people interested in looking up.

Go download the Seti@Home client to run on your home PC. It doesn't get in the way of any other applications and it looks friggin' cool to boot.

I just passed 3,000 workunits a couple weeks ago. I have donated over 4.4 years of CPU time and it has taken me VERY little effort. Maybe five minutes every couple months, now that I'm not running it on fifteen Lockheed Martin machines. This was against their policies, but screw 'em - they screwed me every day. But I'm not bitter. The moral of the story is don't run it on your work PC unless you have the permission of the (probably evil) IT staff.

Go get it. All of your smart friends are doing it. The URL is in my sig.

Well, I have been doing the SETI@home for a while now, but I dont have as much work done as you. But I am close:

Name (and URL) Vidar
Results Received 2981
Total CPU Time 3.131 years
Average CPU Time per work unit 9 hr 11 min 59.0 sec
Last result returned: Sun Nov 18 22:11:14 2001 UTC
Registered on: Sat Oct 16 19:41:37 1999 UTC
SETI@home user for: 2.094 years

[svx_commuter]

Most of my life I have always been in the wrong place at the wrong time to see any of the meteor showers, not last night. It was clear and cold and great viewing I watched the show with a friend from 4 to 5:30 am, until it got to light out. Streaks of light all over the sky in every direction. The longest burn streak lasted about 15 seconds. I am not in a country area. I can't see the millyway anywhere between where I live and NYC. There are just too many lights from the cities around here.

Glad to hear that it was even better in darker places.

[Ron Mummert]

Shootin' stars! Whoo-hoo!
I set alarm for 4:00AM.
Alarm goes off.
I acknowledge & re-wake up at 5:00AM. Oh-No!
I'm gonna miss 'em!
Look out window - Can't see across street - FOG!
I'll show, ya! I get dressed, grab binoculars, box 'o Zinfandel, go to bat cave, mount batmobile & I'm off to HIGH ground!
Uh... let's see highest ground within 30 miles is 75 feet above sea level. Gawd, what's all this traffic? Oh, it must be other professional astronomers like myself. What's with all these lights? Only half an hour 'til God pulls the plug, & I can't see anything but other fools driving around in fog circles.
I give up - head for home, but LOOK, there in the distance I see STARS. I chase the stars into a high school parking lot. Other cars are there - I ask another driver, "Did you see anything"?
"Yes, it was magnificent". I look up for a long time. Still hazy on the horizon. Then, I see a fuzzy streak. Then two more. Then - nothing.
Everyone drives away. I go home. Well, there's always 2030! Gee - I'll be 89 years old. Will I still have the SVX? Yes - unless they pry it from my cold dead fingers. I need some sleep. I sure hope Don made a nice video tape!
Ron.

[LarryIII]

Ron,

Do you have a special cup/box holder in your SVX for your
box-o-zinfendal.

or

The fuzzy streak that you saw probably came from the box-o-zinfendal.

or

"Box-o-Zinfindal" ; no wonder it was so foggy !!!


Pick whichever you prefer.


Larry III