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18 Nov 01 - 03:12 AM (#594987) Subject: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: katlaughing Leonid Meteor Showers early pix from New Zealand and elsewhere. I think they must've turned off this link, because it worked fine last night and now, does not. Sorry. kat |
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18 Nov 01 - 06:41 AM (#595019) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: AllisonA(Animaterra) I'm so proud of my kids- they both got up at 5 am with me to drive up the hill to our favorite star-gazing spot- they usually wimp out when it's cold outside- and we were in for quite a show! Some with long, vivid streaks across the sky, some bright flashes (always just out of the line of vision darn! missed it!). We passed several other star-gazers along the way; I didn't go to the party over in Nelson that started at 3 am and is now probably into breakfast mode. What a treat Mother Nature gives us! |
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18 Nov 01 - 08:47 AM (#595043) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: Mary in Kentucky Boo hoo, I missed it. I got up at 4am again at 4:30, but we just had too much ground fog to see anything low in the sky. The funny thing is, my husband said he got up at 4 and 6, but he was always asleep when I was up! |
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18 Nov 01 - 10:23 AM (#595064) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: katlaughing Allison, that's great about your kids! Mary, I was afraid we were going to be clouded up, but the news said not until this morning (which it is now, combo of rain and snow.) I couldn't stay awake, so I went to sleep at 130a, telling my inner clock to wake me ay 3a. Rog had gone to sleep already, but told me to wake him when I saw something. Well...my inner clock is on the blink because it woke me two hours too late! Darn it! Anyone else see them? |
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18 Nov 01 - 11:01 AM (#595080) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: TheMuse I live in "suburbia" in Central NY, no street lights but just about everyone has outside house lights on all night. Inspite of that, I managed to find a spot in the back yard where I could block the lights with trees and such so that I got a good view of the VERY clear sky and was treated to about 50 meteors between about 2:30 and 3:30AM. Some small,"Was that one??", to "WOW", with trailing lights. It must have been amazing to be able to see it from an area with no other light interference. Even so, what I saw was a great spectacle and worth the cold temperatures to see it, however, an hour was all I could take. . . . :-) |
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18 Nov 01 - 11:03 AM (#595081) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: Margaret V I did. I usually just smack the alarm clock when anything "elective" is the cause of it and roll back over to sleep, but this morning I managed to get up at 4:30, dress warmly, and take a blanket along with me to the backyard. I watched there for about fifteen minutes, then jumped in the car and drove out to a spot I'd scoped out a few days ago on the road that runs through the state park. Like Animaterra, I passed other stargazers along the way, a wonderful feeling. Up on the hill without the light pollution from town, the show was spectacular. Sky was clear, and the air so crisp, and I could hear crinkly leaf noises from creatures in the woods flanking the road. Oh, and the stars! Almost anywhere I looked, there they were, blazing away much brighter than shooting stars I've seen before, and the streaky tails that Animaterra saw were really prominent here. Absolutely beautiful. Margaret |
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18 Nov 01 - 11:14 AM (#595088) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: sophocleese The kids and I were looking forward to it and I rolled cheerfully out of bed at 4:00 only to greet cloud cover and fog. NUTS! Oh well we did get a decent night's sleep instead.
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18 Nov 01 - 12:25 PM (#595120) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: The Shambles But clouds were in my way......... |
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18 Nov 01 - 12:27 PM (#595125) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: Gypsy Crud! I KNEW that this would be posted, and didn't see it, and started a new thread. Anyway, WE were up, and it was spectacular. Colder than a witches you know what, but well worth it. Have never seen so many meteorites! ---Jeff (PA)--- Subject: Leonid Shower From: Gypsy Date: 18-Nov-01 - 12:25 PM So, did anyone else catch it last night? Was between 2 and 5 am, and was it awesome. We watched for about an hour, and i don't think i've EVER seen so many meteorites. WOW! |
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18 Nov 01 - 12:30 PM (#595126) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: kendall Kat, that link doesn't work for me. |
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18 Nov 01 - 12:34 PM (#595129) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: Gypsy Thanks Jeff. Eyes just don't work too well with only 4 hours sleep. |
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18 Nov 01 - 01:12 PM (#595154) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: 53 I did! Bob woke me about a quarter to 5. I switched off the alarm and dressed warmly. We spotted a few out the window and Bob went back to bed. I went out, spread a beach towel on the trunk/back window of my car. I stretched out like it was a recliner and watched about 40 minutes of it. It was GREAT!! I have seen metoer showers before but this was the BEST. As well as catching several straight above me, I caught flashes out to my far right and left - happy to have good peripheral vision. The best was near the edge of the periphry... it was like someone lit a match, burned brighter, lasted longer. AWESOME. A wonderful way to draw near to a Higher Power - watching that and knowing He is in charge! So glad I didn't miss it!! I did return to bed and slept til nearly 10 - unheard of for me!! Glenda |
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18 Nov 01 - 04:21 PM (#595238) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: Charlie Baum After our concert last night in DC with Wayne Henderson, many of us in the FSGW folklore society mentioned that we would try to catch the Leonids, and came up with different strategies to deal with light pollution in the Washington, DC area. I stayed up all night, and went out with Dennis Cook (husband of Mudcatter Judy Cook). We left my house at 2:30 am, and drove out to Shenandoah National Park (about an hour and a half), where we found an overlook at 3300ft above sea level, well above the ground fog we say starting to develop on our drive out. We saw hundreds of meteors, sometime several in a second. There were dozens of other meteor-gazers at every overlook along the Skyline Drive from Thornton Gap to Skyland and probably beyond. [Only the middle 30 miles of the Skyline Drive were open at night, as it is hunting season, and the Park Service is trying to deter poachers, since access to hunting through the National Park is prohibited.] Others nearby would ooh and ah and comment on meteors that were in a quadrant of the sky other than the one I was looking at at any particular second. Explosive meteors, meteors that left long tails, short meteors that petered out after a short distance, pairs and triplets of meteors... It was cold, but I rarely had to wait as much as 10 to 15 seconds between sightings, and that may have been attributable to the happenstance of my viewing of an particularly unproductive quadrant of the sky for those seconds. We rediscovered that the darkest hour is NOT the one before the dawn, and watched as growing light from the East gradually snuffed out all but the brightest stars. Then we got back into the warm car and made our way own the mountain, and into fog with fairly thick patches near steambeds as we reentered the Piedmont lowlands, glad that we had picked a mountaintop as our viewing spot. --Charlie Baum |
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18 Nov 01 - 04:42 PM (#595246) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: Charlie Baum Kat's link (first post in this thread) just worked for me. I'll bet the failures to connect were just due to too many people trying to access it at once. If it doesn't work for you now, try agian later. --Charlie Baum |
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18 Nov 01 - 06:33 PM (#595285) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: Joe Offer My fiancee Christina lives in the Sierra foothills, 2,300 feet above sea level. We planned to camp out in the back yard and watch. Half the sky was overcast until midnight, and we called friends at 6,000 feet to see if they had better weather - and they didn't. By 1 AM, the sky was perfectly clear, and the show was spectacular. I'm sure we saw well over a hundred shooting stars. I gave up counting at 25, and that was before we started seeing them once or twice a minute. I think I'm going to like living in the mountains. -Joe Offer- |
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18 Nov 01 - 06:50 PM (#595297) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: Gary T We went camping in a Missouri State park this weekend, expressly to be away from city lights for this shower. Got up at 2 and started seeing some every few minutes, off and on as clouds rolled in and out. About 4:15, the sky stayed clear for 20 minutes or so while the frequency was up to dozens per minute within our field of vision. Splendid show! Major cloud cover ensued, and we turned in at 5. None of us had seen more than a handful in our lifetime before then, so this was quite a treat. |
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18 Nov 01 - 07:12 PM (#595307) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: Mark Cohen My friend Rick and I (Rick happens to be an excellent guitarist, so this can still be a musical thread!) went out around midnight and drove along the Saddle Road up the slope of Mauna Kea (along with lots of other people--felt like a caravan!) until we were above the clouds. We turned off just before the road to the Mauna Kea Observatories visitor's center at about the 9,000 foot level, and parked under an immense sky full of stars. (The summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii, at 13,796 feet, is the premier astronomical observation spot in the world.) Not two minutes after getting out of the car we saw what turned out to be the highlight of the show: a brilliant orange-red dumbbell shaped light that shot across more than half the sky, trailing a razor-straight yellow-green streak like a fluorescent contrail. We could hear the people gathered at the visitor's center shouting and cheering. After that we stayed for about an hour, saw perhaps 50 meteors. At that time most of them were apparently hitting the atmosphere at a fairly shallow angle, so there were lots of long horizontal streaks where you could watch the meteor traveling for 4 or 5 seconds--awesome! It was cold for us Hawaiians, though -- my East Coast blood has thinned considerably! -- so I finally pulled myself away (Rick had retreated to the car, turned the heater on and was singing "When You Wish Upon a Star") and drove back downhill to town. But I did manage to get up again at about 5AM and went out on my balcony and saw another wonderful show. I'm guessing about 3 or 4 a minute, though there were a couple of flurries where I saw 5 in 3 or 4 seconds. Watching those fiery streaks while listening to the waves on the rocks...definitely a lifetime memory. By the way, to go from the poetic to the pedantic, when those space rocks hit the atmosphere and burn up so impressively they are meteors. A meteorite is a space rock that made it all the way through the atmosphere and is sitting on the ground. Aloha, Mark |
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18 Nov 01 - 07:22 PM (#595310) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: Mark Cohen Oh, and if anyone is interested in some serious stargazing, check out the Mauna Kea Observatories. Here's an impressive photo of the observatories that shows the island of Maui in the background. (I've driven up to the observatories...the drive alone is an otherworldly experience.) And here's the website for the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy. Enjoy! Aloha, Mark |
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18 Nov 01 - 07:52 PM (#595326) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: Brían I got up at 4AM in Portland, ME to see this and was treated to a good show. I didn't count, but I didn't have to wait more than a few seconds to see meteors, often in clusters going over what seemed to be all parts of the sky. I suppose clear, crisp conditions allowed viewing meteors in large numbers even with light pollution street lights and such in a densely populated area. Brían |
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18 Nov 01 - 08:00 PM (#595329) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: MMario I was overnighting with some friends - and this morning 5 adults and two kids were gazing up at the sky with delight - spent about 45 minutes watching between 5:45 am and 6:30 - (then I went back to bed) |
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18 Nov 01 - 08:46 PM (#595346) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: GUEST,Lil' VanBone Well seems like fog was pretty widespread. Glad It went away before midnight, allowed for some wonderful viewing free of light pollution (on of the few perks of St. Mary's County). Wonderful show, cold but it kept me sticking it out for several hours. |
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18 Nov 01 - 11:20 PM (#595416) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: DonMeixner And even though I know How very far apart we are It helps to think we might be wishing On the same bright star
The band played last nite and I got in too bushed to watch much. I just got in from my walk and sat in the yard for awhile and saw a couple stragglers from yesterday. Even at that the sky is a great show. Now, any one have a clue what the bright, solitary light is that is just one and a half penny whistle lengths off the eastern horizon and two penny whistles due north of orion, parrallel to the horizon? Don |
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19 Nov 01 - 07:09 AM (#595498) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: AllisonA(Animaterra) I was wondering the same thing, Don! Look at this map. Keeping in mind that there's no such thing as "up", when I look at Orion on the map, there's Jupiter just over there to the right. When we were meteorgazing my science-genius son thought it might be Jupiter. |
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19 Nov 01 - 11:48 AM (#595629) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: GUEST,LynnT Probably was Jupiter; with binocs my fiance and I were able to discern two of its moons. We drove to local Greenbelt Park (MD suburbs of DC) at 4:30 or so and I stopped counting at 100. Bright, many with long sparkly tails, but nothing like your green streak, Mark. By the way, what a wonderful birthday present for Bill D's wife Rita! Lynn |
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19 Nov 01 - 12:40 PM (#595655) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: GUEST,JohnB I got up about 4.30, looked out of the window and it looked a bit foggy. I went to the front door, opened it, looked out and instantly saw my first meteor. So I went back in got dressed and got my wife up. She saw two just getting into the truck. We drove about 10K to a site we have used in the past, passed three or four cars parked near the Bruce Trail. As I got out of the truck I was welcomed by an Owl hooting. We spent almost an hour there, watching the best meteorite show we have ever seen, it was a bit hazy but not too bad. When I counted, I got between 10 to 15 per minute, I think the count was lower at times but I wasn't counting then. We then went home and sat at the front of the house, too many trees for a great panorama but still good, until about 6.00 when it had really slowed down in frequency. Glad to know we are not the only crazy people in the world. JohnB |
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19 Nov 01 - 02:08 PM (#595714) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: Rex I got up at 1:00. Did'nt want to miss it and this idea of meteor showers happening in such a narrow sliver of time is new to me. I saw one, went in and did some reading. The clock rang 2:00 so I put on my coat again and went out. Waited awhile and saw four, went back in to my book. The clock rang 3:00 and I checked again. It's like a regular shower streaks now and then. Then they start to really come in. Time to wake me wifey. Then we got the boys up, put on their coats and wrapped them in sleeping bags and headed out to the front deck. They all laid on the deck but it was fun for me to look up directly into the Leo constellation. The meteors radiated out from it. Poof, poof, poof, within two seconds. Then several go at once. I lost count right away. One thing that was really fun was when they would come straight at you. A star would form and then fade. Some would go in parallel paths next to each other. Some would explode. It was interesting how several came from other directions. There was more than Leonids happening. I saw meteors reflected in the windows. Making light that shown on the walls of the house. Things I'd never seen before. How fortunate that it was so clear. And up at 9600ft. the sky is pretty clear. The boys went back in to bed after a time but my wife and I stayed out to watch the show. I suppose it wasn't the thousands per minute that the sky folks predicted but it was the best that I've ever seen. Rex |
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19 Nov 01 - 05:38 PM (#595835) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: Brían Thanks, Animaterra for the Star Map. I have been trying to find one. I'll put it on my Favorites. Your powers of obsevation seem much better than mine, Rex, or I was real tired. the meteors seemed to be coming from all over the sky to me. Brían |
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18 Nov 02 - 05:42 PM (#829321) Subject: 2002 UPDATE - Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info From: katlaughing Thanks to my sis, I found out there are going to be more of these this year, tonight and tomorrow. here's a page with more info: clickety. |
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18 Nov 02 - 07:21 PM (#829397) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info -2002 UPDATE From: Mary in Kentucky I intend to be outside at 10:30 tonight and 5:00 tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, the clouds are moving in as we speak! This is supposedly the best show in 35 years, and the last for quite a while! |
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18 Nov 02 - 08:29 PM (#829437) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info -2002 UPDATE From: ballpienhammer 80 miles N of DC; our peak will be Tues AM 0500 hrs-0530 hrs. Thanks for your excellent reporting sky watchers! Mallet and Tackhammer, the boys, will be watching with me. |
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18 Nov 02 - 08:46 PM (#829444) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info -2002 UPDATE From: Liz the Squeak Bloody typical! It's been clear all day and now I'm up to watch them (nearly 2.00am) it's cloudy as all buggery. LTS |
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19 Nov 02 - 06:16 AM (#829665) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info -2002 UPDATE From: Giac Suppose if I survive til the next Leonid storms in 2099, it will be raining then, too. Sigh. |
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19 Nov 02 - 07:58 AM (#829705) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info -2002 UPDATE From: Mary in Kentucky Same here Giac. It clouded over hours before the show and is now clearing up! |
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19 Nov 02 - 08:31 AM (#829742) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info -2002 UPDATE From: ballpienhammer same here-up at 0500hrs and too many clouds! So much for phenomenae! |
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19 Nov 02 - 09:01 AM (#829773) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info -2002 UPDATE From: Genie Mark C, your experience reminds me of last year's Leonid, which I saw from the countryside outside Portland, OR. I recall one meteor that looked like a fast moving COMET or one of those huge streaking fireworks you see on July 4th; it left a tail in the sky for several MINUTES afterwards! Both in the Leonids last year and this year's Perseids, there were some meteors big and bright enough to zoom very visibly past my car windshield even while driving on the interstate not far outside the city. I'm jealous of those of you who got to see the Leonids this fall. Pretty much the whole northern half of the state of Oregon (and Washington state too) wasss under heavy cloud cover all night. I'd have to have driven to Coos Bay or Brookings or Klamath Falls (about a 6 to 8 hour trip) to see them. On the bright side, although the big meteor storm was this morning, don't the Leonids keep going for a couple more days? It may clear up tonight out here. Jeanene |
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19 Nov 02 - 10:02 AM (#829825) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info -2002 UPDATE From: katlaughing Darn it, I missed them! There is more info at this site: Star Date, but I didn't find anything about them lasting past last night or this morning. It also says the full moon would make viewing all but the brightest difficult.*sigh* kat |
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19 Nov 02 - 12:49 PM (#829981) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info -2002 UPDATE From: Rex Um, well it was cloudy when we went to bed but I got up at 3:00 and it was clear so I roused the family. The moon sure took things down a notch or two but we stood on the east side of the house in its shadow and that helped. They didn't seem to fall as frequently as last year but still outstanding for any shower. Sometimes two at once. Sometimes three. And those ones that come straight at you. Weird. A star appears. Then fades. Should I duck? There was a great many of them as firey streaks. There too many to count but I wonder how many more would have been seen without the moon there. Later I was up at the road at 6:30. Up here it was pretty much daylight and I happened to look to the west and saw one, a bright one, fall from about 30 degrees up all the way to the horizon. How bright that might have been at night! After two great Leonid showers in a row I think we will be jaded with normal meteor showers for awhile. And it seems it will be many decades before we have such a thing again. Rex |
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19 Nov 02 - 01:06 PM (#830000) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info -2002 UPDATE From: YOR I set the alarm for 5:00am and up till about 6:00 I saw about 50 or 60. We had high very thin clouds (MD/DC burbs) so only the brightest stars were out. I'm glad I got up and took the chance but but last years show was much better, my son and I saw about 100. This year I didn't even bother to get the kids up. Bummer! Enjoy, Roy |
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19 Nov 02 - 01:31 PM (#830025) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info -2002 UPDATE From: Genie Kat, the Leonid meteor shower always lasts about 4 to 5 days, with at least 2 days of peak activity. I'd imagine the Leonid is similar, though I don't know for sure. What happened this morning,though, was a "meteor storm" within the Perseid meteor shower. That's passed and is not expected to happen again for a century. Drat! (Oregon goes through the driest summer on record -- pretty much clear and dry through July, August, September, October, and the first week of November -- then it thoroughly clouds over when it's Leonid time!) Genie |
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19 Nov 02 - 01:33 PM (#830031) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info -2002 UPDATE From: Mudlark Well, rats. I managed to stay up until 3:30AM, started checking the night sky about 1:30. Clear as a bell, I'm a long way from ambient light polution, but....moon so bright in my backyard that I could barely see any stars, even Orion's Belt, Dippers only a washed out suggestion. And though I searched the skies for several minutes it was no surprise that I saw no meteors. I could have read a newspaper by the light of that moon. By the time they come around again, if I see them at all it will be from above! |
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19 Nov 02 - 01:51 PM (#830050) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info -2002 UPDATE From: katlaughing Genie? Ya lost me. You said: Leonid meteor shower always lasts about 4 to 5 days, with at least 2 days of peak activity. I'd imagine the Leonid is similar, though I don't know for sure. What happened this morning,though, was a "meteor storm" within the Perseid meteor shower. That's passed and is not expected to happen again for a century. Question: the Leonid is similmar to the Leonid meteor shower?:-) Accordingto the StarDate site, the only Perseid happening was back in August. It is the Leonid which will not come around again for almost a century. If you meant to make a distinction between "storm" and "shower" that would make more sense.*bg* kat |
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19 Nov 02 - 03:54 PM (#830136) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info -2002 UPDATE From: Don Firth @#!&%?>#*!!! Overcast! Seattle and the whole area is essentially underwater, doing its Atlantis imitation again. Maybe a peek of sunshine and blue sky this coming weekend. Well, phooey anyway! In 1955, I happened to be in Denver, at a hospital undergoing a long session of physical therapy. There was a big lawn in front of the hospital, and one warm evening, fifteen-year-old Mary Lou Green from Clinton, Michigan and I were sprawled on a couple of lawn chairs, enjoying the balmy weather. Suddenly, a meteor, apparently of considerable size, streaked across the sky. Almost directly overhead, the brilliant fire-trail traced itself halfway from horizon to horizon, then separated into three parts, continued for a way, then all three faded out. A few seconds later, there was a sonic boom. I turned to Mary Lou and said, "Did you see that? Did you hear it?" She sat there wide-eyed and said, "Wow! I sure did!" It was pretty obviously a meteor, and it was so startling bright that that it lit up the whole sky. I was sure it would make the news. Especially since it was followed by a sonic boom (never heard one with a meteor before; I always thought they were too high for that). I speculated that the UFO folks would have a lot of fun. "Fireball lights up sky!" and all that. But the following day, there was nothing on the radio, nothing in the papers. As far as I know, Mary Lou and I were the only ones who saw it. But it was spectacular! Don Firth |
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19 Nov 02 - 05:36 PM (#830170) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info -2002 UPDATE From: Joe Offer My darling wife woke me at 2 AM, and dragged me outside for the meteor shower. She had understood the moon would be out of sight by then, but it wasn't. The moon was so bright, it glared. Great moonshadows, though. Still, it was a beautiful display. We stayed out until 3:30, and counted 125 shooting stars. We took two dogs outside with us, but left the arthritic one inside - she started crying, which woke up 13-yr-old Josh, so he tore through the house trying to find us. So, Josh couldn't get up for school today and I had to take him to school at 11:30. Must be tough to be a kid with delinquent parents who stay out all night... -Joe Offer |
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19 Nov 02 - 11:49 PM (#830400) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info -2002 UPDATE From: Genie Actually, Kat, the Leonid is very much like the Leonid! LOL! I meant to say the Perseid meteor shower usually lasts for 4 or 5 days, so I'd expect the Leonid to, also. The Perseid and Leonid meteor SHOWERS occur every year (at least within our lifetimes), but some years are more spectacular than others. This year's Perseids were exceptional, as were both last year's and this year's Leonids. It is a particular meteor STORM that happened this morning, when the earth passed through the tail of some comet during the normal Leonid time. That's what is not expected again for a century. Genie PS. even though the rain is stopping in Portland, the skies are expected to be at least partly cloudy all week, so even if the showere continues, we won't see much this year. |
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20 Nov 02 - 06:15 PM (#831095) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info -2002 UPDATE From: Charlie Baum Got up at 2:30 am (thanks to Lisa's bronchial coughing fit), close in to Washington, DC, and decided to trek out to a darker sky region. I drove out past Frederick, Md. and played around trying to find a good viewing place in the region of Catoctin Mountain/Cunningham Falls (which the rest of the world knows as the area of Camp David). The moon was incredibly bright and drowned out all but the brightest stars and meteors. It was fun traipsing around in the country by the moonlight, which made it very easy to see the landscape, but at the same time made it hard to see the skyscape. Ultimately, I settled down in Lewisville, Md, and allowed the classic silhouette of the 19h century brick church to block the moon's light from where I sat in the churchyard. I saw a few meteors, perhaps every minute or two, but compared to last year (2001) when I saw them coming every second or two, it was VERY disappointing. Boy, I got jaded by last year's storm! And this year, because it was a weekday, I had to fight communter traffic on my way home. I can't believe the traffic jams that form every morning in Frederick at 5:30 am, and am very glad that I don't have to commute from way out in the exurbs. --Charlie Baum |
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21 Nov 02 - 08:18 AM (#831503) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info -2002 UPDAT From: GUEST,Taliesn I awaken at around 5AM anyway , but on the appointed pre-dawn morning I simply had to force myself into doing my sometimes daily N.Y.-speed walk exercise out to the nearby wooded area where home construction has begun and see what I catch an eyeful of seeing as how I was excited by the crystal clear sky ( the previous night sky was throroughly cloued over ) I wondered if I had missed the better part of it all when a long streak of shooting star beckoned me on and I knew this rustling from my the warmth of my nest was going to be worht it after. The paved road through to the area that I speed-walked to is cut through an old stand of atleast 8-to10 story trees and , once I walked to the end of that unfinished street I immideiately jaunted up to a hillock for the best tree-encompassed 360 degree vista of the sky. The view was perfect if just because , by the time I got there ,5:45 AM , the full moon had descended below the treeline as the first outer rings of dawn's event horizon had begun in the opposite quarter of that 360 sky. What I did not see was something as spectacular as an Aurora Bourealis show, but I saw more very clear shooting star "sky writing" signatures in 30 mins than I've seen in my entire life including my magical first experience of the nightsky on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon mid-September 2001. Being my "personal" moment I was inspired to spend it as I chose and being on the threshold of , what is atleast for me , the joyous Christmas season, I was inspired to pray for Peace and Light to advance healing in the various flashpoints of hatred and violence ripping at the greater sacred fabric of life in this 21st century world of ours. I'm sure the Dalia Lama would approve . ;-) |
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21 Nov 02 - 04:49 PM (#831950) Subject: RE: BS: Kewl Leonid Meteors pix & info -2002 UPDATE From: EBarnacle1 I woke up both days but got no satisfaction between clouds and light pollution in NYC. Does anyone see a plot in the fact that most of us seem to get foul weather whenever there is a sky event going on? |