Leonid Meteor Shower Tonight! (11/16 -> 11/17)

[Tom Rankin]

Tonight, (the night of 11/16, technically, the morning of 11/17 for those of us who live in the NE), the Leonid meteor shower is supposed to put on a good show. The best time to look is around 4:00 AM.

As a bonus: The weather forecast is for clear skies, and the moon will not interfere!

Details are here.

 

[Lawn Sale]

Some friends and I are heading to the top of a local open peak with Thermarests to view it. I hope it'll be nice.

 

[Trudy]

Monday night I arrived home from work at 11:30. The sky was completely overcast. Thirty minutes later it was completely clear. A perfect, moonless night to view meteors.

Got all set up outside in the lounger with sleeping bag, glass of wine and a cat or two. I saw ONE shooting star in two hours, then fell aseep. Woke up at 4 am, had another go but no luck.

It was a spectacular night for star-gazing, at any rate.

Anyone see a bunch?

 

[Quietman]

I was out from 9:30 to 11pm and saw 15 or so. Most were short, but very bright.

 

[Tom Rankin]

I was out from 9:30 to 11pm and saw 15 or so. Most were short, but very bright.

I am not in the least disputing your report, but this is surprising for 2 reasons:

1. The shower radiant was barely above the horizon at 11. This would severely limit any meteors making it to your visible sky.

2. The predicted maximum was not until 4:00 AM. Perhaps it was early.

Did the meteors all appear to come from the head of Leo, or the Planet Mars (a very bright orange looking 'star')? (Note, it makes no difference where they were heading towards). If not, then you certainly saw meteors, but not from the Leonid meteor stream.

FWIW, it was cloudy here.

 

[Quietman]

Hi Tom,

I was mildly surprised to see as many so early in the night. Probably 7 or so were of the short but bright variety, others were longer and fainter. I didn't know where Leo was, but we did determine that they were all(almost) starting at a point SW of looking straight up, and my son asked what's the red star where the meteors are. I guessed correctly when I said Mars. Sorry about the clouds! We were very clear with just some haze to the north

 

[Tom Rankin]

Hi Tom,

I was mildly surprised to see as many so early in the night. Probably 7 or so were of the short but bright variety, others were longer and fainter. I didn't know where Leo was, but we did determine that they were all(almost) starting at a point SW of looking straight up, and my son asked what's the red star where the meteors are. I guessed correctly when I said Mars. Sorry about the clouds! We were very clear with just some haze to the north

Last night at 11:00, Mars was just a shade North of East about 10 degrees off the horizon, and Leo would have been just below that.

 

[Quietman]

I was looking north and they were coming from in back of me over my left shoulder. My son and daughter were watching too, so it wasn't just my questionable brain cells.

Now I'm really confused!!

 

[Tim Seaver]

I had hoped to catch a few pictures, but probably should have started shooting a bit sooner ( I was out from 3:30 - 5 am) Of course, the coolest event that I saw, what looked like a fragment exploding in a green dusty "POOF", was before I had a camera set up.

 

[rhihn]

We arrived at Dunham Reservoir, near Grafton Lake, at 3:45AM under clear skies. Valerie joined us at about 4:30, and we stayed until 5:30. Our viewing area faced mainly toward the northeast, with some views to the north and east (guessing at the direction). In all I probably saw some 15-20 larger "events" and several smaller ones. They seemed to appear at random points in the sky, and we sometimes waited quite a few minutes between each. Each one lasted less than a second, but was quite bright and unmistakeable. I read something about the meteors appearing to emanate from the planet Mars, but didn't see anything that met that description. We saw a planet low on the horizon, which I think was Venus (?). Maybe Tom (or someone) can comment.

Joanne took photos of the sky. I haven't seen them yet, but likely she didn't get a shot of a meteor.

Clouds started to roll in after 5:00 or so, and we started getting bored. A trip to a nearby reservoir to view the sunrise and literally hundreds of geese and ducks perked us right up!

 

[Tom Rankin]

We arrived at Dunham Reservoir, near Grafton Lake, at 3:45AM under clear skies. Valerie joined us at about 4:30, and we stayed until 5:30. Our viewing area faced mainly toward the northeast, with some views to the north and east (guessing at the direction). In all I probably saw some 15-20 larger "events" and several smaller ones. They seemed to appear at random points in the sky, and we sometimes waited quite a few minutes between each. Each one lasted less than a second, but was quite bright and unmistakeable. I read something about the meteors appearing to emanate from the planet Mars, but didn't see anything that met that description. We saw a planet low on the horizon, which I think was Venus (?). Maybe Tom (or someone) can comment.

Joanne took photos of the sky. I haven't seen them yet, but likely she didn't get a shot of a meteor.

Clouds started to roll in after 5:00 or so, and we started getting bored. A trip to a nearby reservoir to view the sunrise and literally hundreds of geese and ducks perked us right up!

Arcturus was up in the East before that time, but Venus did not rise till around 6:00.

The radiant was near Mars. This does not mean that they all appear to start there, but if you projected them backwards from where they started, a Leonid meteor would appear to have come from near Mars. Note: This was just a coincidence, and has nothing to do with Mars in general.

 

[TDawg]

Woke up and got outside on my deck here in Campton for 3:40am. We have an open view looking to the south, west, and NW, and right away picked up Mars and Leo.

The air was crisp and clear so the stars were very bright. I ended up counting 19 shooting stars in 40 minutes. 5 of which were really bright and impressive, with long tails lasting maybe 5-10 seconds after the initial flash. Although all were in the southern sky, many were not really near Leo or Mars. And none of then originated from exactly inside the head of Leo. But I guess if you followed the would be lines back, it would been close to Mars.

Very cool and well worth the 3:30am wake up. Couldn't help but giggle like a 10 year old after every good one.

 

[Tom Rankin]

Woke up and got outside on my deck here in Campton for 3:40am. We have an open view looking to the south, west, and NW, and right away picked up Mars and Leo.

The air was crisp and clear so the stars were very bright. I ended up counting 19 shooting stars in 40 minutes. 5 of which were really bright and impressive, with long tails lasting maybe 5-10 seconds after the initial flash. Although all were in the southern sky, many were not really near Leo or Mars. And none of then originated from exactly inside the head of Leo. But I guess if you followed the would be lines back, it would been close to Mars.

Very cool and well worth the 3:30am wake up. Couldn't help but giggle like a 10 year old after every good one.

I'm a little late thinking of this, but for the next good shower, if several of us could make exact timings of when we saw 'good' ones, that would be really cool!