Leonid Meteor Sightings

[WOWZY]

I stayed up all night and lost count after 400+. The experts said the peak would be between 4AM-Dawn, but what I consider the peak of the night was at about 1AM-2AM. Sure there were hundreds of them at 4AM-Dawn, but only a handful were big enough to leave long trails and last longer than . 25 - . 5seconds.



From 1AM-2AM there were about 20 that lasted about 2-3seconds and streaked almost across the whole sky, leaving a lit trail for an additional 2-3seconds.



The experts recommended taking a lounge chair and blankets. I did one better. The wife said, "What in the world are you doing!?" I guess dragging your recliner out of the house and sitting it in the middle of the backyard would seem a bit extreme, but hey!, I was comfortable the whole night and was wearing my insulated camo coveralls. I even took the side table out there also. She said I was nuts! I said, "No I'm not nuts, Jack our neighbor is the one whos a little off"



The reason I say that, is my neighbor just bought a new telescope and thought he could see the Leonids better with it. Now I could've headed this thing off, but I figured it would be fun to watch him. And funny it was! Picture this! The first couple of big ones streaked over and he looked like a Turrent Gunner shooting at the Japs with that telescope of his. I busted out laughing and walked over to where he was at and asked him if he was through making a fool of himself. He said that he had hoped no one had seen him before I walked up. He was pretty embarassed.

 

[illflem]

I'm still not sure if I got up and watched them or just dreamed it. It was cloudy when I went to bed and cloudy when I woke up but I remember watching it in a clear sky. Like you said there weren't any big ones but lots of little ones, sometimes more than I could count at once. I just watched out my front window at 3AM Mtn time, wasn't about to go outside, it was 14° last night.



Oh yeah, found this link for space weather http://sec.noaa.gov/advisories/index.html

 

[The patriot]

I was outside for about 45 minutes about 1am. I saw a couple very bright ones that left trails. I planned on getting up around 4am, but that didnt work out too well.

It was in the 20's at 1am, so waking up at 4 out of a warm bed sounded like a neat plan until time came to carry it out.

Eric

 

[jandtjil]

WOW

I have stayed up a late a couple times for leonids, this was definitely worth suffering through the previous tries.

Was able to drag wifey out, she stayed in truck (yeah I tried to tell her about missing most of them but she wanted no part of the morning chill (hardly any wind, about 54 degrees out). I chose alternating positions standing (leaning against the truck grill (some heat, perfect!!), then stretching out in a lounge chair.

Was interupted at 67 about 22 min into the effort by security police making the rounds here on base, I stopped counting to turn the park lights on, no need surprising 18-21 year olds carrying automatic weapons I figured .

After a refill of coffee and a few laughs with security and wifey it was back to business. I called it quits at 2:54 local (Edwards AFB) with another 118 sighted. Quite a sight, but probably not as memorable as the tail gunner. what a hoot!!!



JJ

 

[Bill Lins]

Originally posted by WOWZY

I guess dragging your recliner out of the house and sitting it in the middle of the backyard would seem a bit extreme, but hey!, I was comfortable the whole night and was wearing my insulated camo coveralls. I even took the side table out there also. [/B]

You just MIGHT be a Redneck if.....

 

[tgbol]

I was camping on El Mirage dry lake in the SoCal desert. Quite a show from 11:00pm to 4:00am.

 

[TXRam]

Damm, if only I'd thought of the recliner...

I was getting up at about 4:30 to go hunting and watched for about 15 minutes - couldn't stay out too long, it was so hot and no A/C outside (mid-50's here in TX).



It was really neat - glad I didn't miss it! I watch TV about 3 minutes a day and I listen to mostly CD's in the truck, so I didn't even know about until I saw it happening.



I can just picture the guy with the telescope - ROFLMAO! He must not have been drinking very much or who knows what might have happened!?!?!

 

[Tagalong]

Great Stories!

I especially loved the telescope story!! I observed from 2:00a. m. to 6:00a. m. and was glad I did it... it was truly worth it. Here on the east coast between 4-5a. m. we counted they were coming about 500 plus per hour. Several left long smoke trails that lasted nearly three minutes. Past Leonids were a let-down, but not this one! I'm an amateur astronomer and membership director for our local astronomy club so I was happily surprised to see many of you take advantage of this event. I enjoy driving my Ram CTD to our observing and Star Party sites... many members just "love" the purrrrr of the Cummins! In any case, the Cummins is a hit at around 2:00a. m. when I leave!

I hope many of you enjoyed the free show, we won't see it again (same as this past one) until 2035!

In any case... those of you out west in really dark sky... take advantage and enjoy the "wonders of the night sky!"

Tagalong

 

[Cummnzpowr]

dang ya'll,i done thought them shootin' thingy-m'bobbers was the reflection of them bombs going off in afganeestan... u done spoiled my day

 

[WOWZY]

Anyone know which planet was shining bright that night, towards the Northeast? Was it Mars?



I could've asked Jack that night, but was afraid he'd hurt himself trying to look.



I hope he doesn't try and look at the sun without the filter.

 

[Tagalong]

There were two planets!

WOWZY,

There were two planets up in the Northeast...

Saturn and Jupiter! Jupiter is the brighter and Saturn will have an orange hue. Get out there with your binoculars... if you can hold them steady enough and you have a pair of 10X50s you can see Jupiter's four moons and Saturn will look like a sombreo hat. Saturn's rings are tilted nicely this year so they will stand out nicely in a steady pair of binos! You don't need a very large pair of binos either! I like to carry around a pair of 8X24 in the Ram. The tail gate makes a great place to lie flat on you back and check out the sky with binos!

Let me know how you make out! For your next challenge, I'll tell you where you can find a "naked" eye galaxy if you're interested!

Tagalong

 

[Forrest]

We set the alarm clock for 1:30 & sat under an absolutely clear sky. We were in Death Valley, just above Furnace Creek. What a show!!! Definately the show of a lifetime.

 

[Batman]

Wowzy

Guess its too late for me to take a guess at which planet you saw... ... ... ... ... I was gonna say that it was probably... ... ... ... . youranus. Sorry, it is an ongoing goofy joke I have.