[My apologies for posting this so late: I moved into a new office at work, and had a ton of deadlines at home too.]
In the late 1990s, the annual Leonid meteor shower had several strong "bursts" of activity, and the people who keep track of that sort of thing say it might happen again tonight.
Meteors are bits of rock, metal, or ice that enter our atmosphere at high speed and burn up, giving off a lot of light. Meteor showers are when the Earth plows through a stream of these guys, and we see lots of meteors. Comets are the usual culprit: as they get near the Sun, the ice holding the comet together sublimates (turns directly into a gas), which is what creates the tail and the fuzzy head. But little bits of gravel also get loose, forming a long ribbon or stream that orbits the Sun independently… but still near the original orbit of the comet.
As the Earth crosses these ribbons, we get showers, and they happen at the same time every year, more or less. In general, the number of meteors is the same from year to year, but that can change. For example, if the parent comet made a recent pass of the Earth, the meteor rate can be beefed up. This is what might happen tonight (Saturday/Sunday).
The Leonids happen in mid November (I have LOTS more info on the Leonids on the main website; what I wrote was for the 1998 shower but the science hasn’t changed!). The parent comet, Tempel-Tuttle, hasn’t been around for a while, but the gravel and ice that got ejected from that passage is still out there. According to some scientists, we may be headed into a denser region of one of those streams tonight, causing a meteor storm– lots and lots of meteors. These things are notoriously hard to predict, but earlier predictions were pretty close, so I’m taking this one seriously.
The best view is from England and Europe, since it’ll be dark when the storm is predicted to occur. Meteors are generally best watched after local midnight (literally halfway between dusk and dawn), but the storm is predicted for around 11:45 to 1:30 a.m. Eastern (US) time. However, if the prediction is off by a few hours anyone might get a good view! I plan on being out tonight. I’ll go outside every hour or so after dark just to see.
Leonids are cool because they orbit the Sun in the opposite direction than we do, so we meet them head-on, adding our orbital velocity to theirs. They scream in about as fast as anything can, upwards of 70 km/sec! Since their brightness depends on their energy, and their energy depends on their velocity, this means you get brighter meteors. Many are extremely bright, and they move much faster than normal meteors.
If it weren’t so miserably cold (and in California, wet) in November, this would be my favorite shower. The Sun is shining now, so I’m hopeful.
Anyway, for more info including observing tips (dress warmly, use a recliner/chaise lounge, get a good, wide view of the sky), go to the Sky and Telescope website. And enjoy!
November 18th, 2006 at 1:57 pm
I hope to see them tonight.
It was overcast most of this week. Fianlly was clear this afternoon.
Been a while since I’ve seen a meteor shower. Hope the light pollution doesn’t ruin it too much.
Let us know how you do, Phil!
November 18th, 2006 at 2:37 pm
Great post ready and waiting now for midnight clear dark sky’s at the mo so looking hopeful for later. Grimsby, UK
November 18th, 2006 at 2:50 pm
If it’s clear I’ll try to get pictures.
November 18th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
I’ll be out there this morning 04:49 is the forecasted peak in the UK. It’s gotten a tad misty, hopefully it’ll clear off a bit.
November 18th, 2006 at 5:16 pm
…. you are in California and you are complaining about cold? *slaps the BA around a bit with a large trout* For shame!
November 18th, 2006 at 5:45 pm
Sigh. Fog already.
November 18th, 2006 at 6:29 pm
It’s incredibly clear and crisp near the SE coast where I am. Fortunately, I live in the country and have a great view of the open skies with very little light pollution.
My cameras are ready!
November 18th, 2006 at 7:23 pm
Clear and sharp here in darkest Nottinghamshire. Currently no mist or fog so let’s hope for a decent showing from the Little Lion Cubs tonight!
November 18th, 2006 at 7:35 pm
ok so.. west coast cali, when should i go look??
November 18th, 2006 at 10:14 pm
Phil: I noticed that your Blog was referenced on this topic in USA Todays tech updates. Ain’t it great to be famous?
GAry 7
November 18th, 2006 at 10:30 pm
“ok so.. west coast cali, when should i go look??”
Up! Seriously. Rge radiant is in Leo, which is on/below the horizon. Look where the sky is darkest.
November 18th, 2006 at 10:37 pm
Gary, Angela links to me every now and again, and I to her. SHe is a woman of obvious good taste.
November 18th, 2006 at 11:09 pm
Well, the good ‘ol British weather completely ruined things for me here in Cumbria. Set my alarm for 04.00m, and woke to the sound of rain lashing against the window so hard I thought the glass might actually break. Finally the rain stopped at 05.00 so out I went to take a look, and squelching my way across a muddy park found the sky half covered with cloud, but Leo shining in the clear part… twenty minutes later the clouds rolled back in again, and in that time I saw just one single Leonid meteor. I did get the impression a few times that there were a few fainter ones sparkling away, just out of the corner of my eye, but that might have been my imagination and optimism joining forces, I don’t know. Raining again now, so if anything exceptional happened I’ll have to read others’ accounts of it…
November 18th, 2006 at 11:34 pm
I was out from 5:00 – 6:00 GMT (11:00 – 12:00 CST), with a short break to check this blog. I didn’t see [squat]! One 2nd mag sporadic – south to north through Triangulum and three possible very faint Leonids – so faint that they were more subliminal.
November 19th, 2006 at 12:08 am
Apparently, the Lion Sleeps Tonight. Just a few Leonids here in the SE U.S., not even enough to move me to set the cameras up outside.
However, my daughter just called from the mountains of North Gerogia and said she saw one real beauty that almost went from horizon to horizon, so she’s happy with the night’s viewing.
I’ll probably step outside for 30 minutes or so in a few minutes and give the lion one more chance to roar.
November 19th, 2006 at 12:37 am
I set up my 400D doing 30s exposures every 34 seconds, F3.5, ISO 800, fully wide ( 18mm*1.6 so 29mm equiv ) when I went to bed – it took 247 exposures looking east, from 0027 to 0257 before the battery packed up in the cold of the conservatory. I figure I was capturing 88% of that period of time on film…a total of 132 minutes of exposed time. They’re great images…you can watch Leo slowly rising – M44 is very visible – getting stars down to 7, 7.5, maybe 8. Not the ideal pointing, but the best I could do from the conservatory given that I wanted to keep everything inside….a few banks of light cloud popped through every now and again, but overall, I’m fairly sure any Leonid that I would have noticed by eye I would have seen on ‘film…
In those images I have ONE….
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/doug_images/IMG_0107.jpg
towards the top right…not even a Leonid.
I think the Lion had a night off.
Doug
November 19th, 2006 at 1:16 am
257 photographs taken between 0027 and 0257 last night… images go down to Mag 7.5 -> 8 . Not the peak, not the ideal pointing by virtue of being stuck in a conservatory – but also not a single visible Leonid of any sort in 132 mintues of exposed time.
Doug
November 19th, 2006 at 1:22 am
Pedant Pete here – it should really be a chaise longue from the French for long chair. Typically however, the poorly educated masses have taken it upon themselves to say ‘L-O-N-G-U-E, that can’t be right, it must be L-O-U-N-G-E’ to such an extent that it has now become the accepted spelling in some parts of the world.
And you expect people like this to accept evolution, the Big Bang, etc. etc when they can’t even accept the correct spelling of a word
November 19th, 2006 at 1:58 am
Thick clouds and rain in central Germany.
November 19th, 2006 at 4:17 am
Utterly perfect conditions in Hampshire England, which i did a double take at. It’s never clear for the Leonids, its a rule!!
Anyway, finally got outside at about 4.50 GMT.
Saw 7 in about 15 mins, all quite bright mags 3 to 0 with nice trains.
4 of the 7 arrived within 2 mins of each other.
If i missed all the fainter ones then the ZHR must have been around about a hopeful 100 or so?
November 19th, 2006 at 6:25 am
“Meteors are bits of rock, metal, or ice that enter our atmosphere at high speed and burn up, giving off a lot of light.”
Interesting how definitions change. I had understood “meteor” to mean, roughly, “any atmospheric phenomenon,” thus streaks/fireballs from meteoroids, hail, rainbows and hurricanes all count as meteors. Thus “meteorology” is the science of such things, most frequently used for weather study. However, we seem to have dropped all the terrestrial portions of the meaning and now only use it in the astronomical sense. Even dictionary.com’s definitions only refer to the atmospheric portion briefly (listing it as a “former” definition).
In any case, I did not get outside to look at it (I thought it was tonight, not last night!), so no idea what the mid-Atlantic view was like.
November 19th, 2006 at 9:00 am
Pretty underwhelming this year for me. I woke up at 2AM California time, and went outside to see if anyting was going on. It was relatively clear but not perfect in Sunnyvale — Orion and nearby constellations shining bright, but the sky lower in the east was a bit hazy, but not so much I couldn’t see stars. Stayed outside around 5-10 minutes, but didn’t see a single meteor. A far cry from the showers around the turn of the millenium.
November 19th, 2006 at 10:26 am
I was out 01-02 GMT and again 05-06 GMT. Mostly cloudy with sporadic clearings. Too much street lighting here to see faint meteors. Saw thre bright meteors in the mag -1 to 2 range (bright enough to be visible through light clouds) – one being a non-Leonid.
November 19th, 2006 at 10:49 am
between 3:00 and 4:55 california time, we saw about 28, only three really bright ones though. I was up on Skyline above all the lights of sunnyvale and mountain view.
November 19th, 2006 at 11:51 am
There was a chance but the clouds rolled in just after dark. Oh well. It was still a nice evening out walking the dogs.
November 19th, 2006 at 1:32 pm
The prediction for showers proved fruitless for me in S. Texas, though my vigil was intermittent.
Whether rain or meteors, when it comes to predictions there is little difference between weathermen and meteorologists. *wink*
November 19th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
I saw none, but it was foggy. The fog was thin, so I could see some stars, but it was pretty grim, so I didn’t try for long.
November 19th, 2006 at 3:49 pm
Aaaaaaarrrgggg!!! I can’t keep it in any longer….
Alternative text for above cartoon: “I warned you not to buy a big dog with these new ’scoop-it-up’ laws”.
Sorry…
November 19th, 2006 at 3:59 pm
9 Leonids and 1 sporadic over the course of just over an hour, pretty good conditions, town of 40000 people (calculate the light polution from that), stars visible down to +4. Over 45 minutes worth of exposure with zero meteors recorded, d’oh!
November 19th, 2006 at 7:58 pm
Well, I went out to watch both Friday night/Saturday Morning, and Saturday night. I saw nothing but stars (and street lights, house lights, the occasional passing car (whose occupants must have wonder why I was shielding my eyes and staring straight up)). Needless to say, even with perfect weather (well, nearly, I did notice Sirius was twinkling wildly – the atmosphere must have been in turmoil) the skies over San Antonio do not make for optimum viewing.
jbs
November 19th, 2006 at 8:21 pm
I saw no leonids, the night was so clear you could see the Milky Way, but I didn’t see any…why is that?!
November 19th, 2006 at 8:54 pm
I think the Sky & Telescope site indicated that really only the North East (Maine, Vermont, et. al.) would see the bulk of the event. But on the odd chance South Central Texas was close enough to Maine, I went out to look anyway! :0
Of course, not seeing the bulk of the storm wouldn’t preclude a stray meteor or two from crossing the sky here – and I went out on that hope. I saw a pair of meteors a couple of days after the Orionids were due. No such luck this time, and on the appointed days, too – hmmm – maybe I should look again tonight….
jbs
November 19th, 2006 at 10:30 pm
Yep, John B. Sandlin, I’d definitely say you’d be well-advised to have another look tonight. meteor forecasts are a bit iffy and quite often you’ll see some on the nights either side of the predicted optimum.
So if you didn’t see anything last night all’s not lost ..
I’ll be getting up pre-dawn here in Adelaide on the off-chance even though we’re not exactly in the best spot here in Southern Australia for it.
Good luck & clear skies to y’all!
November 20th, 2006 at 7:04 am
I saw 2 “Back Door” Leonids earlier in the evening (7 PM or so) through the occasional openings in the cloud cover. Stayed up late, and at about 12:30 AM I noticed a good hole in the clouds overhead drifting to the East (where Leo would soon rise) so I stood outside and waited…
And waited…
And waited…
Nada. Zilch. Bupkus. (I wonder where THAT word comes from…)
After 20 minutes I went to bed.
Richard B. Drumm
Vice President
Charlottesville Astronomical Society
Charlottesville, Virginia
November 20th, 2006 at 7:09 am
Just a couple within a 15-minute period here in Western Massachusetts. The first was pretty memorable, a long and very bright streak that descended through the bowl of the Big Dipper, just about midnight Eastern Time. The other was more faint, slower-moving, overhead. Then, the clouds crept in.
November 20th, 2006 at 8:58 am
Despite the washout from Columbia, SC and a light fog, I saw several during the peak, including one very bright fireball crossing zenith at about 12:10 EST. We packed it in pretty shortly after that.
November 20th, 2006 at 9:21 am
In West Texas we had much better luck on Friday (several, including one really big one) than we did on Saturday (one, maybe). Not sure what to make of that, but there it is.
November 20th, 2006 at 9:22 am
I went outside Saturday night not expecting much. There’s a huge amount of light pollution here on the north side of Minneapolis.
In less than five seconds after stepping outside I saw a good one. I waited a few more minutes but didn’t see anything else. I was getting very cold and my neck hurt from looking up so I went inside. I didn’t expect to even see one so I was pleased.
I did get a glorious aurora Borealis light show a couple years ago. I clambered onto the roof of my house and just drank in the colors washing across the sky for hours. That was exceptional for my area.
November 20th, 2006 at 10:19 am
Saturday I went out the beach in Melbourne, FL. The sky was nice and clear and I saw a bit of the meteor shower. There was one really bright one. Despite the sand being cold and the air off the water chilly, it was really beautiful and peaceful to watch.
November 20th, 2006 at 10:28 am
Outside both Saturday and Sunday nights from 9 ’til 10:30 or so in northern CA between Lassen and Shasta and zip. No lights to worry about; clear skies, great stars, no Leonids. Last year we even drove to the top of the rim for a better view but got the same results…
November 20th, 2006 at 1:50 pm
I was in Chino Hills State Park in southern California, and stayed up from 2:15-4:00 a.m. Sunday morning. Definitely not a storm there, but there were a few nice bright Leonids, including one with a long tail going north through the big dipper. It was also a good excuse to set up my scope and enjoy the winter skies for a couple of hours.
November 21st, 2006 at 8:37 pm
>Interesting how definitions change. I had understood “meteor†to mean, roughly, >“any atmospheric phenomenon,†thus streaks/fireballs from meteoroids, hail, >rainbows and hurricanes all count as meteors.
In my experience, “meteor” has never been defined as “any atmospheric phenomena”. Sure more than a century ago, meteors were considered an atmospheric phenomena (hence “meteorology†), but I don’t think anyone has ever referred to a rainbow as a meteor!
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:55 am
Still no luck seeing anything from Oz – well at least not Adelaide or, at least again, in my corner thereof. Too cloudy.
Slept outside last night an’ all – on a swag on the lawn, looking up … at the clouds with very occasional partial breaks and no meteors. Did spot a bright satellite or very high altitude plane briefly and that’s all folks.
Fully overcast on the other two nights too.
Ah well, not really the best continent or best storm/showerpredictions anyhow this year. Had fun & hope y’all had better luck ..
November 22nd, 2006 at 12:59 am
BTW> Kevin : a rainbow is a naturally occurring solar spectrascope , albeit a poor-resolution one – as you possibly already know.
Rainbows on suitable worlds orbiting double or multiple star systems – now that I’d love to see!
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