Depending on how the orbit of the clouds and earth intersect, the showers can be ho-hum or awesome. Well... this year our trajectory is taking the earth smack through the midde of one of the biggest and particle dense clouds of this particular bunch. If things go as predicted, we MIGHT see as many as 100,000 meteors per hour. YES, I SAID 100,000-- THAT IS NO TYPO.

This will hit November 18 (Saturday night/Sunday morning). Peak activity for west coast is 1-3 a.m. and for the east coast 2-4 am.

TRY TO GET OUT WHERE IT'S DARK AND WATCH THE SKY!!!

[ 11-12-2001 06:04 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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I'm going to try to stay up, myself.

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Oh yes, this debris field is associated with the dissociation of Comet Tempe-Tuttle.

[ 11-14-2001 07:08 PM: Message edited 1 time, lastly by Graysith ]

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We're beginning to enter into the debris cloud/s. Of course it is less densely populated with junk along it's perimeters; but even so they are there and can still impact with the earth's atmosphere. It's just the sheer NUMBER which will impact us that will be so awe-inspiring in the wee hours this Sunday morning.

So Padme, GO OUTSIDE AND LOOK UP! (Preferably after dark, and the later, the better.)

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Speaking of, you can always see a meteor or two: there is plenty of junk floating up there (speeding along, actually, or in sometimes degrading orbit around the earth) and tons of material comes into our atmosphere every day. While most of this is in dust-like micro-meteors, several are big enough to incinerate in the manner of a "usual meteor." So if you go out on any given clear night and look up, you'll probably end up seeing a couple.

A few weeks ago I observed what had to be a piece of man-made debris: it traversed practically horizon to horizon, was fairly slow moving, went from north to south (unusual) and glowed hot neon PINK with white along the edges of its trail. GORGEOUS.

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