reply to post by pa.Frost
Sometimes you need to wait a while, and the real trick is being comfortable while you do so. The best rates are just before dawn usually, which is
long after most people tend to give up either because they are cold or tiered!
In most cases they probably wouldn't feel half as bad if they layered up with cloths, and got out a sleeping bag + something comfortable that you can
lay down flat on like a sun-bed.
I can easily spend 6+ hours observing like this, and remain comfortable even when it drops a little way below zero like it sometimes does in January
here.
It also helps if you can get away from light pollution, and find somewhere with "open skies". It's a fair bit of trouble to go to for most people,
but it's worth it for those times when you see multiple meteors appear at the the same time, or a bright fireball explode in an even brighter flash
of light, or... well the list is endless... you'll just have to dip your line in and see what you catch
Also, at the risk of going on a bit, if you want to see long graceful meteors rather than brief streaks, observe when the meteor shower radiant is on
or close to the horizon. This usually means just after dark, sometimes an hour or two later depending on the shower and your location.
Although you may not see many, the meteors (belonging to most major showers) that you see early on in the night are usually meteors that are skimming
the outside edge of the atmosphere (called "earthgrazers"), which means that they last longer (less thick atmosphere to be battered with) and due to
the angle/perspective, look much longer.
Sometimes they travel nearly all the way from horizon to horizon, either shooting upwards, apparently from the ground and directly over head, or low
and parallel with the horizon, and IMO are probably amongst the most amazing meteors you can see.
They typically play tricks on your eyes, seeming much lower than they actually are for some reason more than most "normal shower members" in my
experience, and a really bright one, if you are lucky, is likely to bring your lower jaw in contact with the ground (if you happen to be standing
whilst observing one like this)
Here's a bright Leonid earthgrazer from 2001, taken during a storm with an all sky camera:
Source:
SPA Meteor Section
Later on in the night, although the rates will tend to increase through the night, the meteors look much shorter.
Source:
SPA Meteor Section
They are now almost falling directly down towards you, rather than approaching you from the side and flying overhead like a "jet fly-by" as they
were earlier on. This is because Earth is turning, and meteors belonging to the same shower always travel more or less parallel to one another in
their orbit around the Sun, so we can predict what angle a meteor would approach us from at any given time in relation to a specific point on Earth's
surface.
It sounds complex, but the concept is actually quite simple, albeit hard to visualize at first.
These two
animations I've uploaded might help visualize what is going on.
One shows the formation of a Leonid dust trail that was created in the year 1767, and the other shows why it is that Leonid meteors appear to radiate
away from the constellation Leo (the 'Leonid radiant'), which is closely related with apparent meteor length. Hope that wasn't too confusing. If
anyone wants me too, I'll try and explain the concept a bit better.
After all that talk about Leonids, it seems fitting to post an example. Here's a slowed down fireball from the 98 Leonids:
(click to open player in new window)
Damn that turned into a long post - again lol
