Leonid Watching

Discussion in 'Astronomy, Exobiology, & Cosmology' started by wet1, Nov 17, 2001.

  1. wet1 Wanderer Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    8,616

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    Leonid Watching
    Credit: APOD Montage
    Explanation: Will the Leonids storm this year? The annual Leonid meteor shower should peak this weekend and some predictions suggest that "storm" rates of a thousand or more meteors per hour are possible for observers located in eastern North and Central America during the early morning hours of Sunday, November 18. Similar high rates are also anticipated for the western Pacific region on the morning of November 19th. In any event, the 2001 Leonid shower should be dramatic and easy to watch, as were the Leonids of recent years. From top left to bottom right above are spectacular examples of bright fireball meteors from the 1998 Leonid shower as recorded by V. Winter and J. Dudley, Lorenzo Lovato, and Wally Pacholka. A 1998 image from the Puckett Observatory at lower left features the source of the debris stream which supplies the Leonid meteors, comet Tempel-Tuttle.

    Well, it is time for me to get ready as I think I will go out and see if I can find an area for watching tonights show...
     
  2. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. wet1 Wanderer Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    8,616

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!



    A Leonid Meteor Explodes
    Credit: ROTSE Team
    Explanation: Last night and tonight, a lucky few may see a meteor explode. As our Earth passes unusually close to debris expelled from Comet Tempel-Tuttle, many sand-sized particles from this comet are entering and burning up in the Earth's atmosphere. This yearly phenomenon is known as the Leonids Meteor Shower, but the location the Earth passes through this year holds promise to provide relatively high activity. In particular, the 1998 Leonids was noteworthy for its many bright meteors. In the above slow-loading sequence, a 1998 Leonid was caught exploding over Los Alamos, New Mexico. In the last one-minute exposure, another Leonid streaks past.
     
  4. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. Riddler Institutionalized Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    59
    Star Stuff

    I intend to be up for the event during the next several hrs.

    You never know what kind of cool light shows that you may see.

    How often does the Leonid Shower occur, wet1? Is this a yearly event?
     
  6. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. ats36 Registered Member

    Messages:
    1
    I'm thinking amazing, as I close my bedroom window and hope that some of the video I shot comes out. I saw about 30 or 40 skygazers, and about 2 or 3 fireballs, nice show. Now there is little left to the darkness that couldn't stay long enough, and a light cloud cover is moving in, but with losing sight of the last star, I decided to close the window and get ready for bed(get rid of the chills, about -10 here). Most that I saw had trails of blue(Magnesium) and some yellowish-orange(Sodium) ones. All in all, it was a excellent show. I was viewing from Newfoundland(North America's most easterly point).
     
  8. Chagur .Seeker. Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,235
    For those interested ...

    Thanks to the Aussies and an excellent website (ABC Science Forums) you can check out a rather informative bit re. the Leonids.

    http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/leonids/default.htm

    Sorry for not having posted this earlier.

    PS They also had a thread going with reports as to how it was ... as it was happening. Neet.
     
  9. wet1 Wanderer Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    8,616
    The Leonid metorite shower is a yearly event. Only some years are better than others. During Nov. 13, 1833, there was a shower of several thousand per minute. But no one was aware that it was coming. The comet Tempel-Tuttle leaves behind it a dust trail of particles and passes the earth every 33 years. It is this that produces the Leonids.

    At one time it was thought that the Leonids had passed beyond the earth's orbit and would not would be seen again. There has been predictions of better than average that that turned out to be a waste of time for those that stayed up to do the observing. However in the last few years (1998) great stides were made in the accuracy of predicting the shower. Rob McNaught and David Asher realized that the shower was connected to the Tempel-Tuttle comet and predictions became better even down to being within a few minutes of the peak activity. What made this show more spectatular than other years is that the earth passed through 3 dust trails, one behind the other. This gave us a continous display which was on show last night.

    I went out to a small river last night to see this. The weather was what every astronomer wants to see. Clear skies. The show was proceeding and a goodly rate only I had blockage with some trees from having a good view all around. So I moved to a field. Beath taking is the words I would use to describe it. It was a little chilly so after a while I got in the truck to warm up. Even then the dash would reflect light from some of the fireballs like a flash had went off in the distance. They seem to come from all directions and a lot were small (probably the size of sand grains) and very quick. Some have reported seeing the trails in color possibly giving a clue as to the makeup of the originating material. Being partially color blind, I did not detect such but I could tell you that the trails were like golden glitter. It was beautiful.
     

Share This Page