Registered: Dec 2000
Location: Elkins Park, Pa
Posts: 577

Leonids

Anybody see the Leonids last night? I did. Really amazing. I woke up at 4:30 AM and went outside to watch. I had never really seen a shooting start (okok, meteor) before, so it was really neat. After staying outside for half an hour, i froze up and came back in.

Share your stories!

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-Bernie

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared'.
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Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Spring Lake Park, MN (45min from minneapolis)
Posts: 313

Gee Golly Gosh!!!!

I heard about them on the news, but i guess i forgot about them when i went to sleep around 12am. I am so MAD! Is it true they only come around once every 100 years?

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Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 34

I was out all night, set up my recliner, some latte in a thermos, chile, and my edge with Planetarium J-Moons, Orrery, and Pleidatlus (superior for telescope users but what a Ram hog -- 1800K) My 90mm refractor, and my 8"f4 fast newt, as well as my Canon a-1 on a tripod.

While waiting for the real peak to come around, I did some deep sky and planetary viewing. For the record, j-Moons is not entirely perfectly accurate with orbital eccentricities IMHO.
I have not used my fancy star charts in over a year, thanks to my visor. some people are apparently able to control the Celestron Nextstar scopes via infrared i believe.

anyhow the shower was really quite nice. I don't generally watch them as I am more interested in deep sky objects, but I fell for the hype. And glad for it.

Registered: Apr 2001
Location: Spring Lake Park, MN (45min from minneapolis)
Posts: 313

Since i have never seen a meteor shower, or flying star, exactly how long are they usually visible for? a blink, 5 sec, etc?

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"Few women admit their age. Few men act theirs."
"The sum of the intelligence on the planet is constant, but the population is increasing"
"I am not a vegetarian because i love animals; I am a vegetarian because I hate plants.-- A. Whitney Brown"

Registered: Dec 2000
Location: Elkins Park, Pa
Posts: 577

I wondered those same questions. After last night I found this: you know them when you see them. They're visible for about a second actually. If you have your heart set on seeing them, take a look later tonight, there might be some more. And yeah, it is that once in a hundred years kind of thing. They said it'll be just as big next year, but a full moon will drown it out.

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-Bernie

"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and that one word is 'to be prepared'.
-Dan Quayle

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Misplaced Canuck in Charleston SC
Posts: 257

quote:

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Originally posted by robert sibell
Gee Golly Gosh!!!!

I heard about them on the news, but i guess i forgot about them when i went to sleep around 12am. I am so MAD! Is it true they only come around once every 100 years?

---

that's too bad. you missed a spectacular show.

You can see the Leonids every year when the Earth passes through the debris trail left behind by Comet Tempel-Tuttle. The intensity of the display varies from year to year. This year was a particularly spectacular display that is not expected to occur again for a while. I was out watching and saw easily 3 or 4 meteors/s during the peak.

There were some particularly cool looking earth grazing comets just as Leo was rising. Long, bright green streaks across the sky. Fantastic!

And along with the Leonids, I got some very nice views of Jupiter, the Orion Nebula and the Andromeda Galaxy.

What a night for observing!

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Rochester, NY
Posts: 284

What about those of us that couldn't see them?

I got up around 4:30, ready to get out in the NY cold to check them out, but when I got outside I couldn't even see any stars! Looks like some high cirrus clouds formed during the night. Of course, by 9 in the morning, they were gone.

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Tucson, AZ
Posts: 366

quote:

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Originally posted by ckrupsha
I was out all night, set up my recliner, some latte in a thermos, chile, and my edge with Planetarium J-Moons, Orrery, and Pleidatlus (superior for telescope users but what a Ram hog -- 1800K) My 90mm refractor, and my 8"f4 fast newt, as well as my Canon a-1 on a tripod.

While waiting for the real peak to come around, I did some deep sky and planetary viewing. For the record, j-Moons is not entirely perfectly accurate with orbital eccentricities IMHO.
I have not used my fancy star charts in over a year, thanks to my visor. some people are apparently able to control the Celestron Nextstar scopes via infrared i believe.

anyhow the shower was really quite nice. I don't generally watch them as I am more interested in deep sky objects, but I fell for the hype. And glad for it.

---

first off, I want to say that I missed the Leonids, not because I forgot to wake up early ehough, but because the sky was cloudy at my location It better not be like this when I return home in August 2017 for the total solar eclipse!

A really nice Galilean satellites program to try is Jovian. i believe that eccentricities are calculated in its solver and it includes a GRS spotter.

As far as being a RAM hog, I have all my planetarium and astronomy software on my Memplug SM so I don't have that problem I also have Planetarium, Orrery, and Pleidatlus as well as Lunar, Messier!, NGC!, Solstice, and Sol! II.

Jason

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Did you just go near a burning hot river of lava or are you just happy to see me?

Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Tucson, AZ
Posts: 366

quote:

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Originally posted by volcanopele


A really nice Galilean satellites program to try is Jovian. i believe that eccentricities are calculated in its solver and it includes a GRS spotter.

---

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Did you just go near a burning hot river of lava or are you just happy to see me?

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan USA
Posts: 790

You left off one survey option:

I GOT UP AT 4:00AM TO SEE THEM AND THE WEATHER WAS SO BAD I COULDN'T EVEN SEE THE BRIGHTEST STARS!!!!

Sorry for shouting.

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Jeff

Registered: Aug 2000
Location:
Posts: 107

I stayed out all night with the local observers group. It was beautiful here (SW Ontario) until about 10:30 - 11:00. Then a peasoup haze rolled in. Although the sattelites read as perfectly clear, we couldn't even see Jupiter for most of the night. We did get some nice deap sky in before the poor weather and also spotted comet LINEAR so the night wasn't a complete loss.

I believe the story is that yes we do see the Leonids annually, they 'peak' on an annual basis every 33 years, but the 'big' peak like this time only comes once every 99 (100) years.

Needless to say, short of a few Leonids early in the night and also a few non-related meteors, the light show for us was a disappointment. Nice to hear it wasn't a loss for everyone though!

Cheers,

Arker.