Friday 16 November Meteor Shower!

[Pete Hanlin]

Thanks to Judy, I went back and looked up exactly when the Leonid Meteor Showers will be "hitting" (and subsequently edited the content of this post so as to not mislead anyone).

Thanks for stopping me from waking up early tomorrow, Judy- you can't imagine how, um, peeved I would have been to have gotten up early for no good reason!

That said, Saturday night around 1-3am is supposed to be the "Really Big Show" in the sky as the Leonid Meteors shower across the sky at a rate of up to 100 per hour (and with that many "falling stars," I have some wishes to make!).

I had heard a report that said the peak would be Friday around 4am, but Judy correctly identified Saturday am as the peak! Of course, now that I've looked around a bit, I see that there are different predictions for the peak, so I suppose if you have insomnia anytime in the next couple days, you might want to wander outside and look up...

[Judy Canty]

Pete,
I think the Leonide showers are most visible between 3 and 6 AM on the 18th. So the secret is to have a party Saturday night that lasts until at least 3 AM, that way you won't actually have to wake up early...:D

[Pete Hanlin]

Leonid Meteor Showers

[Jackie L]

Great link Pete...The site shows 2000. Are these showers for 2001 as well?

[hcjilson]

I saw a couple of them 2 days ago about 430AMThey are known to show a few early.On my way out to check this am but overslept:(hj

addendum @5:30AM-alas it was partly cloudy visibility lousy-did see a bright flash to the south-kind of like lightning but no storms in vicinity-wonder what that was?

[ioconnell]

The Leonid meteors will keep observers awake on the night of 17th - 18th November.

The Leonid shower is best viewed at predawn, it's point of origin is in the south and has an approx. peak rate of 20 per hour.

Harry, The date of actual maximum occurrence may vary by one or two days in either direction

[Joann Raytar]

Other Leonid Links:

• http://www-space.arc.nasa.gov/~leonid
• http://www.spaceweather.com/
• http://www.aero.org/leonidstorm/index.html
• http://www.nasa.gov/

[Sean]

Harry,
I'm pretty sure the best time to view them in our neck of the woods is about 4:30am to 5:00am Sunday morning the 18th.

[Pete Hanlin]

Wow, didn't mean to open such a confusing subject! Apparently, there must be no exact science to predicting when the height of activity occurs!

I've heard various reports from different sources, so I guess the best thing to do is to follow the advice of that annoying astronomer on T.V. and just keep looking up! I'm trying my luck early Sunday morning (if you hear grumbling and shuffling coming from the SouthEast, its just me getting up in the dark ;) )!