View Full Version : Don't miss the Leonid Meteor Shower tonite
The Leonids tonite (16th - 17th) are predicted to peak at over 100 meteors per hour, so be sure to check 'em out if that's your cup 'o tea. It is mine, but unfortunately we've got clouds here in SW Wisconsin right now. REALLY hoping they clear the hell out.
Peak time will be when your location on the planet is facing roughly into the direction of Earth's orbit .... so basically after midnight.
The radiant of the shower (where they appear to 'originate' from) is in/around the constellation Leo -- thus Leonids -- but at over 100/hr they should be all over the place.
The Leonids come from clouds of cometary debris. I forget which comet. The predicted high number results from a particularly dense cloud of this debris. I believe the average peak of the Leonids is around 30/hr or so.
Enjoy!!!
:yeah:
Torplexed
11-16-09, 10:42 PM
Alas...not to be seen in my besodden Northwest skies. :cry: I'm stuck with the more mundane rain showers.
Task Force
11-16-09, 10:51 PM
Cool...:) what time?:hmmm:
antikristuseke
11-17-09, 01:55 AM
Not sure if it is visible here, probably isn't. Anyway am not well enough to be out of bed anyway.
Torvald Von Mansee
11-17-09, 04:17 AM
Alas...not to be seen in my besodden Northwest skies. :cry: I'm stuck with the more mundane rain showers.
I lived for a short while in the NW. Seeing the stars may be tricky.
Unfortunately, I live right next to a major urban center, so I'll have too much light pollution to see anything, most likely.
Platapus
11-17-09, 07:59 AM
No way will I look at this meteor shower.
I remember "the day of the trifids"
:D
Ya, fricken clouds here too. Kept goin out to check, and by 2am there were sparse holes in the clouds, only a few bright stars visible, and could see them come and go as the clouds passed by. Went to bed, set alarm for 3:30, still fricken cloudy.
Too bad, wondering how it panned out. Still looking for reports. China is supposed to get quite a display tonite, but not the US. China gets all the astronomical fun this year :yawn: Oh well. I'll see a meteor storm some day.
In 2000 I saw a meteor explode in the sky (a bolide) making it like daylight for a second or so. Saw a rather large smoke trail leading TO the explosion, and a much smaller trail going away from it. That was WAY awesome!!
<EDIT> WOW steamwake!! are you a time traveller? I posted this AFTER I read your post, yet mine shows up BEFORE yours in the thread. odd
SteamWake
11-17-09, 10:20 AM
Of course it was cloudy here. So of course once again we missed them.
Not only that westward is my 'worst' view direction, The trees cover nearly 30 percent of the sky so we had planned a trip out to the lake.
Was just about to pack up all the 'stuff' when I went out side and... dog gone it... clouds :oops:
DeerHunter UK
11-17-09, 12:12 PM
No way will I look at this meteor shower.
I remember "the day of the trifids"
:D
I was about to type the same thing!
Hide under your bed covers people!
:yep:
Either that or crash into a bus :hmmm:
ummmm .... 'day of the trifids' ? some meteor storm?
ahhhh, just googled it ... movie ja?
SteamWake
11-17-09, 01:44 PM
Yes a silly saturday mantanee horror / thriller. Had a bit of a cult following for a while.
No view again tonight :nope: Solid overcast now and supposed to stay that way through the rest of the week :damn:
ya, sometimes weather just won't co-operate at all. After a wealth of obscuring clouds last nite, it is now a clear and sunny day here. Watch clouds move in again tonite :O:
GAH! Another Wisconsinite!
Also, I always hear about these things too late :P
Platapus
11-17-09, 06:03 PM
ummmm .... 'day of the trifids' ? some meteor storm?
ahhhh, just googled it ... movie ja?
:yep:
For those who have not seen the movie, alien plants invade the earth and they are preceded by a spectacular meteor shower which everyone in the world watches (almost all). The Meteor shower blinded everyone who watched it so as to make it easier for the plants to kill and eat them.
Saw that when I was a kid and it scared me so much I made up my mind that I would never watch a meteor shower. :o
I haven't seen the movie...
Read the book :salute:
Wow,glad I missed that one...:haha:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVXEA7_y344
Platapus
11-17-09, 06:12 PM
Wow,glad I missed that one...:haha:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVXEA7_y344
Well, actually it was a pretty cheezy movie. :har:
But to a young punk like me, it gave me bad dreams :yep:
My favourite Meteor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxPZVIKr590
Although I did wonder if this was next:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BVoa8o9IFM
FIREWALL
11-17-09, 07:28 PM
It was fantastic. It paid off liveing on an island.
No background light here. What I wouldn't give to go into space.
Blacklight
11-17-09, 08:29 PM
I actually saw a big one come down last night from my bedroom window although It was by far not the biggest I ever saw.
There was one that came down once while me, my sister, and my friends were hanging out on our back deck late one summer night back in the early 90's. It must have been pretty big and flying low. It lit up the backyard like daylight and you could even see the smoke trail it left behind. The most amazing thing that makes me assume that it must have been large AND close was the fact that we could HEAR it. It made a sound like "FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT" as it zipped past overhead. :o
antikristuseke
11-17-09, 08:49 PM
Well, actually it was a pretty cheezy movie. :har:
But to a young punk like me, it gave me bad dreams :yep:
A friend of mine and I have a hobby of watching cheezy Sci-fi movies, thats one of my favorites.
Torplexed
11-17-09, 08:57 PM
Meteor. 1979's version of Armageddon or Deep Impact.(and about as bad.)
http://www.impawards.com/1979/posters/meteor.jpg
Tribesman
11-17-09, 09:05 PM
For those who have not seen the movie, alien plants invade the earth
In the book they are just grown for vegetable oil, no alien invasion.
Platapus
11-17-09, 09:08 PM
A friend of mine and I have a hobby of watching cheezy Sci-fi movies, thats one of my favorites.
Might I recommend Cheesyflix http://www.cupandblade.com/store/catalog/index.php.
Don't ask me why it is cupandblade.com when the company is named cheesyflix. :doh:
Their movies are cheap and cheesy, just like the way I like my women.... Oh that's cheap and sleazy, my mistake. :oops:
Blacklight
11-18-09, 01:06 AM
According to my reading, the meteor shower isn't supposed to start till about 4AM ET. That's when we're going to move through the first of the two trails of debris. They'll look like they're coming directly from Mars so if you locate Mars in the sky (I use the program, Stellarium to do that. It's an awesome program for amature astronomy and real easy to use), you should have no problem seeing them.
vBulletin® v3.8.11, Copyright ©2000-2025, vBulletin Solutions Inc.