Strong Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks Early Tuesday Morning

One of the best annual meteor showers will peak in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday, and for some skywatchers the show could be quite impressive.

The best seats are in Asia, but North American observers should be treated to an above average performance of the Leonid meteor shower, weather permitting. The trick for all observers is to head outside in the wee hours of the morning – between 1 a.m. and dawn – regardless where you live.

The Leonids put on a solid show every year, if skies are clear and moonlight does not interfere. This year the moon is near its new phase, and not a factor. For anyone in the Northern Hemisphere with dark skies, away from urban and suburban lighting, the show should be worth getting up early to see.

"We're predicting 20 to 30 meteors per hour over the Americas, and as many as 200 to 300 per hour over Asia," said Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office. Other astronomers who work in the nascent field of meteor shower prediction have put out similar forecasts.

Strong Leonid Meteor Shower Peaks Early Tuesday Morning

Alright you armchair astronomers, this could be a good one to watch!

When to watch

Earth will pass through one of the denser debris streams at around 4 a.m. EST (1 a.m. PST) Tuesday. If you have only an hour or less to watch, center it around this time. Leo will be high in the sky for East Coast skywatchers, putting more meteors into view. In the West, Leo will be low in the eastern sky at this time, so fewer shooting stars will be above the horizon, and therefore Western skywatchers should also try to stick it out until daybreak.

Across Europe, the best bet is to watch anytime between 1 a.m. and daybreak local time.

Remember, find a place absent of light for the best results!

Enjoy!
-E-

[edit on 16-11-2009 by MysterE]

I'll be there. With my camera. Its cloudy out now, but hopefully it'll clear up a little later.

reply to post by MysterE


See, this is one of the benefits of crossing 50........... I'm up at early o'clock EVERY morning, looking at the stars, sometimes with night vision...... but that's another story. ha

Should be a decent show MysterE; I'm hoping to see some of the Earthgrazers a bit earlier on, say around 2:30- 3:00 a.m. Some of them are purplish, yellow, even green. The last really great Leonids....... at least for us down here in the Caribbean, was ummmmmm.... '97 I think -- three of us lying comfy on recliners, zero light interference, clear skies. When the show started about midnight, we saw some amazing Earthgrazers -- some of them were so close that they left a contrail.

Later on in the night, we were all covering a different quadrant of the sky, and would count out loud when we saw one, keeping a running count. There were more than 850 in a half hour. WOW! Of course, there were a few bottles of champagne involved.

Here's to excellent seeing and thanks for the heads up!

From Spaceweather:

Got clouds? If you can't see the show, you can try listening to it instead. The Air Force Space Surveillance Radar is scanning the skies above Texas. When a Leonid passes over the facility--ping!--there is an echo. Tune into Spaceweather Radio for a live audio feed.

Spaceweather radio! ........ and here's a sample of a Leonid meteor echo from the 1998 Leonids

Leonid Sky Map................ it will look as if the Leonid meteorites are coming from Mars. Where will Mars be? In de East, mon!

reply to post by argentus


Great link! 850 Meteorites, I'll take 85!!! It is pretty overcast here so hope it clears up so I don't miss the show.

-E-

Sweet.

I have a nice cool clear night and know the perfect spot to watch show looking East. Not many lights around.

I can't wait.

I haven't seen the Leonids for about 9 years, I always seem to miss them.

Not this time!



Edit: Changed West to East, cause I'm a donkey

[edit on 16-11-2009 by GioTheGreek]

[edit on 16-11-2009 by GioTheGreek]

I just went outside not too long ago and am already starting to see a few. I saw only about 3 within 10 minutes that I was out there. I cant wait till 2:30 or 3 rolls around.!!!

Thanx for the info - I love to watch the sky at night. I always seem to miss out on such oportunities...

Originally posted by argentus
I'm hoping to see some of the Earthgrazers a bit earlier on, say around 2:30- 3:00 a.m.

If you want to see Earthgrazers, they will be at exactly the same time you saw them last time (ie. midnight), if you are in the same location. They can only be seen when the radiant is close to the horizon, and that happens at more or less the same time every year.

Originally posted by argentus
When the show started about midnight, we saw some amazing Earthgrazers -- some of them were so close that they left a contrail.

They do seem close don't they!

Actually though, Earthgrazers are meteors that graze the outer edge of the amosphere, where as non Earthgrazers are plunging down into it, so if anything Earthgrazers are much higher altitude than non Earthgrazers.

The "contrail" is not a contrail either... it's actually called a "persistent-train", and is made of glowing plasma, which is a mixture of ionized air/meteoroid. They are only left behind brighter meteors, and in some cases can persist for tens of minutes. We still don't know how this is possible since the physics is not well understood.

Here is a persistent train which Joe Rao managed to snap!

[edit on 17-11-2009 by C.H.U.D.]

Apologies if this picture was already posted.....

The first thing that came to mind when I first saw it was a HAARP ring in the sky. Could they have destroyed the meteor and saved millions of people? Nah....that would be unlikely!

spaceweather.com...