Leonid Meteor Shower

[Anomaly]

Check out the Leonid Meteor Shower this weekend. You can find information about it here. The east coast of the US will have the best view. Because of the new moon that is coinciding with this event, it will be possible to see 3000+ events per hour. Find a dark place out of the way of light pollution and look up. It should be pretty spectacular.

[Sarge]

I almost forgot about that. Thanks for the reminder.

[Robert Lai]

Your best viewing will be after midnight (it's when the Earth is turning 'into' the meteors). The meteors can be seen across the night sky, but will appear to center over the zodiacal constellation of Leo the Lion.

To find Leo, locate the Big Dipper. Punch an imaginary hole in the bottom of the Dipper and follow that line -- you'll find two simple shapes, a backwards question mark and a small triangle.

These shapes make up the outline of Leo; the curve of the question mark is his mane, though there are no stars marking his face. At the base of the question mark, the bright star Regulus marks the lion's heart.

The triangle forms the lion's hindquarters, with the bright star at the end being Denebola ('tip of the tail of the lion' in Arabic).

Bob

[Anomaly]

Anyone who is interested in watching, check the web link I put up in the first post - where you are in the world depends on your best viewing time and viewing area. My best time, in central North Carolina, is between 4-6am and best location to spot them is 'up' - the whole sky. Check out that link and find your best place/time.

[Sarge]

Local weather forecast here is clouds and showers all weekend. Hope you guys have better luck.

[SIR SIG]

Well I'm looking forward to it. Its been a while since I've seen a good one (100 objects hour). Now if this puppy can come in with multiple hundreds, then I won't be sleeping this night

[Captain Zymmer]

I work until midnight and I am stuck in a major metropolitan area.

Maybe next year...

[Dan Stack]

Loki (the Welsh Cardigan Corgi who lives with us) and I will be making our morning walk early tomorrow morning to check it out.

I remember back in elementary school in the early 80's getting up in the middle of the night to see the planetary alignment.

[Dan Stack]

Wow.

[Anomaly]

It was pretty spectacular from my vantage point.

[SIR SIG]

Good but not great

Reportedly their was as expected minimum of 6000/hr average 10000-15000 with a possible maximum of 20000.

I was out for 2 hrs and saw maybe 1500

While my positioning wasn't ideal it was still quite a good spot.

How did you other guys fair?

Certainly the best one I've seen ever; ten times over

And I regularly get for these things being a Astronomy buff

[JALU3]

For those in the Southern California Area to note, I've done some research and the peak of the Meteor shower for this Sunday night/Monday morning shall be a little over 2,400 meteor's per hour @ about 0210 PST Monday morning.

Of course try to get away from City lights and find a clear sky.

[Captain Zymmer]

Montreal was overcast, we saw nothing

[Dan Stack]

Here in my neck of the woods, the sky seemed alive. Not a cloud in sight and every few seconds you'd see one or more streaks lof light up in the sky. (Though it was cold!)

I thought it was awesome. My buddy Loki, who was having his morning walk a bit early, was less than impressed.

[SIR SIG]

Well after hearing/watching the news down under.

Its sounds like my 'less then perfect/expected' viewing was some of the best in the country

Most places were overcast with all the big storms the last days.

Fortunely the storm in my area had blown on but many a time there were well timed lighning stikes just as meteorite faded out on the horizon. Virtual Explosions

Still some of the vapour trails lasted 10+ seconds.

And some very bright ones to boot.

I revise my early assessment; it was damn impressive