The Holonet Boards   » Leaving Orbit....   » METEOR SHOWER DUE


Graysith

posted 11-12-2001 06:02 PM    
Another heads up: this weekend the earth will be passing through the leftover cometary debris clouds which produce the Leonid meteors every year. Comets (I forget which comet is associated with the Leonids, I'll look it up in a bit) gradually fall apart as they circle the sun in their long periods; these bits and pieces gradually spread out in orbit around the sun. It's not in a solid mass, but rather in disparate "clumps" of debris. Earth's orbit intersects with these pieces, and they impact our atmosphere, giving us a meteor shower.

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 ]


Mara1Jade

posted 11-12-2001 08:37 PM    
2-4 am on a Saturday night? Eek, too early...

Graysith

posted 11-12-2001 10:18 PM    
Well-ll... it's Saturday night, so just stay up late. Best viewing is always after midnight, but you might see some good earth grazers at the witching hour. I've never managed to stay up and out watching much after 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. myself... but I heard that the Leonids were fantastic in 1998 (people were simply awestruck; it was quoted as being a never-to-be-forgotten event) and this year they are supposed to be as good if not better.

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


Padme of Hidden Lake

posted 11-14-2001 10:33 AM    
Any idea if those of us on the other Hemisphere - aka Europe - are gonna be able to see anything?

Graysith

posted 11-14-2001 07:06 PM    
I believe Europeans will be able to see the Leonids, although they may miss the peak activity. Generally when the earth enters into a cometary debris cloud, we are impacted by "stragglers" both entering and exiting. The time of peak activity seems to range in the late night hours of North America and the east Pacific. Apparently we will be "rotating into" the densest cloud portion at that time. But that does not mean that Europeans would not see any. Watch the sky both the nights of the 18th and 19th, primarily the 18th. I will see if can scrabble up any more data about the actual date and time UT when we actually make contact with the cloud, and when we leave.

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 ]


Padme of Hidden Lake

posted 11-15-2001 08:58 AM    
Very cool - I haven't seen any of my usual night time wonders since I've been here - no Northern lights - though I'm further north than at home - I was beginning to wonder if the American Continent had a monopoly on all the cool stuff...

Anakin

posted 11-15-2001 05:18 PM    
I saw a meteor this morning!

Graysith

posted 11-15-2001 05:50 PM    
Kewl! SEEEEE????

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.)


Padme of Hidden Lake

posted 11-16-2001 04:18 AM    
Awesome - the window in my room is a sky light so I can see everything lying calmly and warmly on my bed very very cool!!!!!

Graysith

posted 11-17-2001 11:08 AM    
Has anyone seen any early-birds yet? I saw a couple pretty nice ones last night, but the "frequency" was that of a "normal" viewing night.

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.