Leonid meteor shower 2008 - This week!

reply to post by Nox Vulpes


My pleasure Nox,

I tend to only surface after dark... one night, ten years ago to the day, I saw a Leonid, and then another... and the rest, as they say, is history


It appears as if the outburst did occur as predicted. The first reports are starting to come in, and high rates are being reported.

I just got in, after a fairly frustrating night that went something like this:

1. Load car and drive for about 3.5 hours.
2. Unpack and set up cameras.
3. Watch clouds for 4 hours.
4. Pack up and drive back home to find clear sky!
5. Unload car and spend 1 hour procrastinating.
6. Decide to go to the garden, so I set up the cameras again - clear(ish) sky at last!
7. After nearly 2 hours it's getting light, so I pack up all my cameras again (half my life seems to be spent packing and unpacking cameras lol!).

After all that, I think I only saw about 17 Leonids and allot of clouds!

I can't wait till next year... perhaps I'll get it together by then

I need sleep now...

[edit on 17-11-2008 by C.H.U.D.]

Well every where I went it was cloudy lol

Please upload some pictures if you got them though

reply to post by Kliskey


Sorry to hear that

Perhaps worth a try tonight depending on where you are?

This was the best I could do last night:


Crop from above:


If they are chopped off, you might have to right click and copy the shortcut of the image to a new browser window to see the whole thing.

(image resize)

[edit on 19/11/08 by Jbird]

I saw a huge one tonight!!!

And I mean huuuuuuge! It seemed very large, and I have seen plenty of "shooting stars" before this one. My family and I have been frequenting a stretch of California coastline for many years that is a premium viewing location for this kind of event (I have been there many times during the Perseids shower).

Tonight, I was driving east on the 80 corridor just west of Dixon, Ca, heading from the Bay Area to Sacramento.

A bright light to the north caught my eye, and it was very low. It was obviously a shooting star, but more of what I would call the "falling star" variety.

It was very big, fast, and seemed very low, but I'm sure it was probably farther away than it appeared. It's color had a somewhat bluish hue, almost like a halogen headlight, but not quite. It was leaving a massive tail, and sparking debris could clearly be made out. It looked like a giant 4th of July "Sparkler", is the best way to describe it.

Again, I have seen many "shooting stars" before, but in all my years I have never seen one like this. My first immediate thought was about that piece of space garbage that was falling into the atmosphere at some point (did it already?), or, I hate to even mention it, but it looked like pieces of debris during the last Space Shuttle disaster.

This thing was A BIG BURNING BALL, and for a second I thought it would make impact.

I was doing 75 in pretty thick traffic, but I did get some good looks at it and was able to see it burn out before impact. Again it seemed very low, and it was on a pretty horizontal plane from what I would guess as slightly southeast to northwest.

I've never seen anything like it, did anyone else in the area catch this beauty?

Edit for spelling, again - KS

[edit on 11/18/2008 by Kaiser Sohse]

[edit on 11/18/2008 by Kaiser Sohse]

I just had to reply, I think you saw the same one I did!!! I live a little south of Sacramento and have been out every night looking for some Leonids. I was setting up a little telescope to look at Andromeda and was having no luck because I was out too early.

So my family and I sat on the swing just chatting a little bit and all of the sudden a FIREBALL came out of the sky from the north, streaking across the sky going north west, like it was going away from us. It was quite low and didnt seem to want to stop! We also thought it might hit the ground, then all of the sudden it was gone.

It was by far the biggest and brightest shooting start I've seen, my wife thought maybe it was someone shooting fireworks, which really made no sense

This was around 7:30pm tuesday night, so maybe we saw the same one??

Damn i forgot all about it this year, im normally all over Leonids. Had other things on my mind lately, at least i can take some solace in knowing next year should be a good one aswell and this weeks weather has been awful so viewing was poor here. I feel real dissapointed now.

reply to post by Kaiser Sohse


Kaiser,

It sounds like this lasted for quite some time, and I think you're probably correct in suspecting space-junk. Sparks and bits coming off it are usually associated with junk.

Check these links for examples:
www.youtube.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.liveleak.com...
uk.youtube.com...
spaceweather.com...

The other likely possibility is a Taurid meteor.

You say it was roughly parallel with the horizon - how high above the horizon would you say it was in degrees?

Also, what time did you see it?

The Leonids are still active, but chances are it was something else.

reply to post by pazcat


Hey pazcat,

Sorry to hear that

Don't forget though, Geminids are just around the corner if you want a meteor fix Once again the moon will interfere though

The Perseids next August is expected to be very strong, but the moon is a problem then. I'm guessing you know them already, but in case you don't, they share many similar characteristics with the Leonids.

So, lots of meteors to look forward to in the near future

reply to post by C.H.U.D.



Thanks Cannibalistic Humaniod Underground Dweller!

I was very similar to the video featured in your thread on re-entry trajectory, but it never lost it's tail.

I'm not sure how I would calculate the degrees, but lets just use a clock and say that if the ground were horizontal from left to right it would be 9:00 to 3:00.

I would say it looked like was moving from about 1:30-2ish to 10:00.

It sounds like Anonymous saw the same one, allthough I don't think it was that late, more like 6:30pm.

I couldn't help but notice that viewers in the video you linked in your thread seemed somewhat frightened, and I felt a bit of the same when I saw mine.

Especially the "Holy f**k" part!

reply to post by Kaiser Sohse


If I understand you correctly, the object was moving from West to East, which would rule out Taurid meteors (they are pretty slow and can look a bit like space-junk).

I think you can be pretty sure that what you saw was space-junk, perhaps even the tool kit that was lost from the ISS the other day (would have to check the timing).

I'm not sure how aware you are of what's up there, but suffice to say, there's allot of junk in orbit, and bits reenter all the time. Much of it is unseen and unreported, but occasionally a larger reentry over a populated area will prompt some reported sightings.

I suppose it's human nature to be a little apprehensive if you see something you don't understand. I know that if I see something like this, I usually get goose pimples and the hair on the back of my neck stands up!

reply to post by C.H.U.D.



Thanks C.H.U.D

I will definatley be making an effort on Geminids, i should be back home on my houseboat in a great viewing area, even with the moon its still a good night out.
Hopefully you can give everyone another informative reminder shortly before once again, its much appreciated.

reply to post by pazcat


You can count on it pazcat. I seem to have found my niche here at ATS. Perhaps I should change my name to "Meteor Man"

C.H.U.D.
Those are some spectacular meteor photos.
I really wanted to do some 2min. exposures, but got snow instead.
I do have about 8 hours of digital meteor radar pings recorded. I need to time compress them, convert them to a mp3 and do a podcast on here about them.
Do you think a podcast like that would get more then 4 listens?

I seem to have found my niche here at ATS. Perhaps I should change my name to "Meteor Man"

Indeed you have!
"Meteor Man" is what I will call you from now on!
It is much easier than typing....Cannibalistic Humaniod Underground Dweller!

reply to post by Zeptepi


Hey Zeptepi,

Thanks.

Unless you have access to pristine, non-light polluted sky, or are using a very "slow" camera/lens system, 2 minutes is almost certainly going to result in serious over exposure, especially when the moon is up!

With meteors, the aim is usually to get as much contrast between the meteor and the background of stars/space. It's a delicate balancing act since you want the highest sensitivity possible to capture meteors, but at the same time you have to avoid washing out the background which is difficult when you are using very light sensitive settings.

The trick is to max out your sensitivity (high ISO and wide aperture), and keep the exposure short. For example, the above shot I took this year, was taken with a 35mm lens set @ F1.6, ISO 800, and the exposure length was kept at 8 seconds. ISO 1600 would have been better, but I would have had to decrease the exposure to 4 seconds in order to retain contrast between meteors and the sky, and that would have meant too much down time between shots + double the number of exposures (which is problematic unless you have large memory cards).

As it was, I was struggling under the conditions... but that's normal for suburban astrophotography, and I'm used to it, although I wish I could be somewhere away from the city!

I'm not sure how many listeners a podcast like that would attract, but you can count on at least one listener tuning in

Hey Kaiser Sohse, I guess a lot of people saw this "fireball" on tuesday night that it now seems you and I saw.

An astronomy professor caught it on video and said it was a bollide, which is just another name for a shooting start that is a few centimeteres in diameter rather than the size of a grain of sand.

A lot of people called in to the local news channels and the last 2 nights they've talked about it, so I guess a lot of people saw it. That surprises me, every time I see something neat in the sky I think im the only one noticing it, but there's other stargazers out there too I guess! Good to know...

reply to post by Kaiser Sohse



I was just googling to find out what I saw the other night and came across this board. My husband and I saw what you described while we were in Sacramento that night, just before 6pm. We were just sitting in the car at a red light and saw it streak across the sky. I've never seen anything like it, it was huge!

reply to post by C.H.U.D.



C.H.U.D.,

Nope, it was traveling from east to west. In seeing the video from the recent object over Canada, it was very similar, only on a more horizontal trajectory and never achieving impact.

KS

reply to post by Kaiser Sohse


In that case, it may have been a Taurid. It's also just as likely that it was a random meteor not related to any known shower, or 'sporadic' meteor as we call them. It's unlikely you'll ever know for sure without knowing it's position in relation to the stars.

If you'd like to know in future how to tell them apart, it's easy - you just need to know where in the sky the constellation is that the meteors of the shower you are looking for are named after. So, if your'e looking for Taurids, you need to work out where in the sky Taurus is. For Geminids, find Gemini, and so on.

Meteors always fly directly away from 'their' constellation, so if you trace back the path of the meteor with an imaginary straight line, if it was a Taurid, it'll point back to the constellation Taurus. So Taurid meteors appear to radiate away from Taurus, that point is called the 'radiant', or in this case the 'Taurid radiant'.


Here's a diagram showing the Taurid radiant:


Here's a real photo of the Leonid radiant:


Another:


Another:


Here's a diagram showing the Leonid radiant:


Just for comparison, this photo is of Leonid meteors taken well away from the radiant:

Note - none of these are mine (I wish!)

All you need now, is to look at a chart or use software to tell you where in the sky to look. Check out Stellarium - it's free! I just use an old version of SkyMap Pro, and put up with a nag screen

There is also a simple planetarium type program which shows you the sky together with any currently active radiants which is available from the IMO's Meteor-related Software page - MetShow is also free, and it's stand alone so no fuss and no install.

You'll have to set it up (tell it your location) when you first use software like this, and MetShow is a little fiddly to start with, but you get used to the interface after a while.

I saw a good Meteor tonight, looking towards the WNW. It was headed in a WSW direction, and actually had a bit of Yellow Coloration (Sodium) to it as well. Normally, even during Meteor Showers, you are fortunate in my locale to witness Bright White Meteors. When you notice the Coloration, this is relatively rare. The best Meteor I ever witnessed was a Bright Green (Copper) one about Five Years ago, which was NOT during any known Showers. Someone about 70 + Miles West of my location also witnessed it a few minutes before I did. That particular rock was as brilliant as a Firework.

Anyways, I just thought that I would give some folks a heads up on my sighting tonight, especially in relation to the Leonid Shower.

Originally posted by TheAgentNineteen
I saw a good Meteor tonight, looking towards the WNW. It was headed in a WSW direction, and actually had a bit of Yellow Coloration (Sodium) to it as well. Normally, even during Meteor Showers, you are fortunate in my locale to witness Bright White Meteors. When you notice the Coloration, this is relatively rare. The best Meteor I ever witnessed was a Bright Green (Copper) one about Five Years ago, which was NOT during any known Showers.

Actually, the composition of the meteor makes only a little contribution to the color you see. Most of the brightness of a meteor comes from the 'bow-shock', which is a compression wave in front of the meteor, where air molecules are excited. When Oxygen is excited it emits green, when Nitrogen is excited it emits red light. Between the two, you get the apparent color of the meteor.

This heating is a very rapid process caused by the meteor compressing the air ahead of it and raising the temperature (kinetic energy of the air molecules) to the point where the air becomes ionized (a plasma). In returning to the un-ionized state (free electrons reuniting with the atoms/molecules) the atoms/molecules give off light which appears to envelop the meteor (one does not see the meteor itself, but rather the envelope of heated air).

Source: Another Failed Explanation for the Kenneth Arnold Sighting

The atomic oxygen OI 5577A emission (the "forbidden" line) appears primarily
in the wake of high-velocity meteors. The Leonids, at 71 km/s certainly
qualify as high velocity, and I'm not surprised to see the number reported
as green! Borovicka et al (1996) unexpectedly identified emission lines of
OIII at 5007A in spectra of two long-enduring Perseid trains.

Source: METEROBS

"Our images for the first time confirm that most meteor light comes from a bright plasma just behind the meteoroid," says Leonid MAC PI Dr. Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute at NASA Ames Research Center. This confirms conclusions made indirectly from spectroscopic studies in prior Leonid MAC missions. "The images now provide dimensions of the gas cloud behind the meteoroid", says Jenniskens, "and tell us how long organic molecules have to endure a hot plasma before cooling down". Just behind the gas cloud, a wake develops that is thought to be due to green forbidden line emission of OI at 557.2 nm.

Source: NASA

Originally posted by TheAgentNineteen
Someone about 70 + Miles West of my location also witnessed it a few minutes before I did. That particular rock was as brilliant as a Firework.

It would not have been the same one, if you didn't see it as the same time.
Meteors last seconds, and then they are gone. They only enter the atmosphere once, except in exceptionally rare cases, and even then they have to make at least one full orbit around the Sun before returning for another try.

Originally posted by TheAgentNineteen
Anyways, I just thought that I would give some folks a heads up on my sighting tonight, especially in relation to the Leonid Shower.

Thanks for sharing. Always nice to hear what others are seeing!