Leonids 2006

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Seems the Leonids best show is predicted to be in Europe this year at 04:45 UT on the 19th Nov, as the earth passes through a steam of dusty debris left behind by comet Temple-Tuttle in its 1932 sweep past our little blue-green ball of life.
This wonderful Astro site from bonnie Scotland is a weath of information:
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/...s/leonids.html

However, dispite us missing out on the predicted peak from this cloud of debris, I am sure it will still be worth having a look at on Sat, Sun & Mon mornings this weekend.
With the shower listed as happening between the 13th & 20th Nov, I wonder have any of you identified any Leonids yet

[stephenmcnelley]

Good link there, and the highlands and Islands of Scotland can give an incredibly clean view of the high northern sky from memory.
Weather providing there will be a small band of Hervey Bay stargazers observing through the morning on Sunday so if we catch anything exceptional will report it.

[spacezebra (Petra)]

Thanks for the heads up - I had heard that they peaked this morning - Im keen to be up early just in case I catch a few.

Cheers

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Sooo .. did anyone see any good Leonids this morning ?
I had a go at 4am, but hazy & sporadicly cloudy skies + Mozzies, drove me back inside.
This said, I did manage to see a few faint ones in the 10 minutes I was outside.
Also, last night during our observing night the were a couple of good fireballs moving East to West, one that was bright enough to light up the ground

[fringe_dweller]

yep, myself and a mate went to a dark site couple of hours drive north of adelaide, but summer haze/high cloud lowered the ZLM to 5.8 - 6.1 anyway between us we counted 16 leonid meteors in 2.5 hours of observing this morning till dawn! funny thing is, it was still our best leonids show for years now
oh but I remember 2002, it was rubbish here, then several hours later or so, their having storms in europe and north america! grrrrrr
funny old game

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Good on you for having a go Kearn, "You never never know if you never never go" !

[fringe_dweller]

hehe thanks Ian yes, 'ya gotta be in it to win it is my mantra mostly with these events it seems!

but hey some of those were very nice meteors, plus the other 9 or 10 other unrelated meteors, and the plentiful nature and drive back with the morning sunlit scenery was impressive as usual.
Its as my mate has said of the leonids in the past - its as if they turn on and off like a tap is being turned, they sure can have very sharp peaks it seems, maybe the other side of the world might have a show?

[swannies1983 (Dan)]

Well i decided to give the Leonids a go last night. Woke up at around 3.30am to relatively clear skies with a bit of high cloud. Once again, the Leonids produced a disappointing show for me. I caught perhaps 2-3 Leonids from 3.30-4.30am. Mind you, I was making this observation from my backyard in Adelaide (+4 limiting magnitude at zenith but more like +3 around Leo due to city lights). I had more fun with the family dog who thought it was great having a 'play' buddy so early in the morning.

I will give the Leonids another go tonight. Mind you, it's pretty overcast here at the moment and it doesn't look like it's going to clear. I have got up to watch every Leonids shower since '98 and they have all been rather disappointing (never got a chance to venture out to dark skies mind you). The 2001 'storm' had been predicted to hit Australia but the one show but out of all the ones from 99-02, it had to be overcast in Adelaide! I did have a small window and saw about 5 shooting stars in about 15 seconds in this small area of clear sky! With my luck, it started to clear at sunrise and I saw a few bright fireballs with one producing a pretty loud 'boom' when it went overhead.

Oh well, I hope this year's shower is late and it clears up here and we get to see few more celestial snowflakes tomorrow morning. Otherwise, I will wait out for the Geminids as they have produced some nice shows of the years

[h0ughy (David)]

my attempts to image it failed, nearly every time my image was taken and uploading a meteor went through, then nothing when the image was being taken. I was out all night from 9pm until 5 this morning and only counted 12-15 meteors all night, with a big one at 2.20am, then the rest between 3 and 4.30

[fringe_dweller]

great reports guys! cheers!
swannies, meteor showers from under dark country skies vs suburban skies are chalk and cheese imo - even the diff in numbers visible from a reasonable dark country sky to a more remote pristine dark sky (ie very little or zero light domes interference) are seemingly out of proportion to me to the minor LM increase, the bright ones you see in the city are even brighter in the country (ie glowing trains are more noticeable and longer lasting ect.) and mag +4 ,5, 6 and 7 meteors seem like fireballs hehe not to mention your dark adaption is probably that much better. its like as dark as an immersion tank out there as you know.
And one thing we are rich in here in SA, would have to be the plentiful very dark skies (and generally clearer northern sa skies) within easy drive/reach imo.
re: the sonic boom with 2001 leonids morning, dont forget the meteors only come as low as 70 klm in altitude at best! typically, and the speed of sound is 344 m/s so it would take like, very roughly, @ ~3 secs per klm, 3.5 mins to reach your ears from directly overhead, not to mention the longer it would take if it was offset from your location ie probably 6 min delay for most. EDIT: personally, I have never heard a sonic boom from a meteor, and I have been going out for showers since 1997, and general observing since late '94, but I have heard an 'electrophonic' meteor, but thats a different mechanism - radio waves, and its instantaneous.
I'm surprised you didnt enjoy the '98 leonids even from adelaide, you must of missed the main morning (17th local time), it was raining fireballs from midnight till 2 am
I concur houghy, around 3 am, when the radiant cleared the horizon, was when the action started for us too. I have given up on meteor photography (has to be allsky stuff like Bert does) unless there is a meteor storm on, its just not worth it mebbe, the pesky little camera shy so and so's

[h0ughy (David)]

Originally Posted by fringe_dweller

great reports guys! cheers!
swannies, meteor showers from under dark country skies vs suburban skies are chalk and cheese imo - even the diff in numbers visible from a reasonable dark country sky to a more remote pristine dark sky (ie very little or zero light domes interference) are seemingly out of proportion to me to the minor LM increase, the bright ones you see in the city are even brighter in the country (ie glowing trains are more noticeable and longer lasting ect.) and mag +4 ,5, 6 and 7 meteors seem like fireballs hehe not to mention your dark adaption is probably that much better. its like as dark as an immersion tank out there as you know.
And one thing we are rich in here in SA, would have to be the plentiful very dark skies (and generally clearer northern sa skies) within easy drive/reach imo.
re: the sonic boom with 2001 leonids morning, dont forget the meteors only come as low as 70 klm in altitude at best! typically, and the speed of sound is 344 m/s so it would take like, very roughly, @ ~3 secs per klm, 3.5 mins to reach your ears from directly overhead, not to mention the longer it would take if it was offset from your location ie probably 6 min delay for most. EDIT: personally, I have never heard a sonic boom from a meteor, and I have been going out for showers since 1997, and general observing since late '94, but I have heard an 'electrophonic' meteor, but thats a different mechanism - radio waves, and its instantaneous.
I'm surprised you didnt enjoy the '98 leonids even from adelaide, you must of missed the main morning (17th local time), it was raining fireballs from midnight till 2 am
I concur houghy, around 3 am, when the radiant cleared the horizon, was when the action started for us too. I have given up on meteor photography (has to be allsky stuff like Bert does) unless there is a meteor storm on, its just not worth it mebbe, the pesky little camera shy so and so's

I took over 108 2 minute shots with 20 seconds between each one to download the image. not a single one

[swannies1983 (Dan)]

Originally Posted by fringe_dweller

great reports guys! cheers!
swannies, meteor showers from under dark country skies vs suburban skies are chalk and cheese imo - even the diff in numbers visible from a reasonable dark country sky to a more remote pristine dark sky (ie very little or zero light domes interference) are seemingly out of proportion to me to the minor LM increase, the bright ones you see in the city are even brighter in the country (ie glowing trains are more noticeable and longer lasting ect.) and mag +4 ,5, 6 and 7 meteors seem like fireballs hehe not to mention your dark adaption is probably that much better. its like as dark as an immersion tank out there as you know.
And one thing we are rich in here in SA, would have to be the plentiful very dark skies (and generally clearer northern sa skies) within easy drive/reach imo.
re: the sonic boom with 2001 leonids morning, dont forget the meteors only come as low as 70 klm in altitude at best! typically, and the speed of sound is 344 m/s so it would take like, very roughly, @ ~3 secs per klm, 3.5 mins to reach your ears from directly overhead, not to mention the longer it would take if it was offset from your location ie probably 6 min delay for most. EDIT: personally, I have never heard a sonic boom from a meteor, and I have been going out for showers since 1997, and general observing since late '94, but I have heard an 'electrophonic' meteor, but thats a different mechanism - radio waves, and its instantaneous.
I'm surprised you didnt enjoy the '98 leonids even from adelaide, you must of missed the main morning (17th local time), it was raining fireballs from midnight till 2 am

I concur about the dark skies! If I had the time and commitment I would venture out to some dark skies. I was in when I stayed over at Cowell on the Eyre Peninsula. The Milky Way band blew me away (once the lights at the local oval were turned off ). Perhaps I should go out to a dark sky so that I can kick myself knowing what I'm really missing out on!

Hmm....I wouldn't have called it a sonic boom but it was more like a "crackling" sound (as stated in that Peekskill 1992 Meteorite thread). Maybe it was steam coming our of my ears as I was just sssooooo due to the clouds. It was certainly the brightest meteor I have ever seen (maybe around -8) and it occurred pretty much at sunrise.

Perhaps I meant to say I have been observing the Leonids shower since '99. Can't remember if it was that year or '98. Oh well, only another 26 odd year till the next Leonids "storm"

Oh, I did go out again this morning. Pretty overcast and I saw no meteors

[fringe_dweller]

no worries swannies, ive certainly observed a few from the outer burbs, and its better than nothing still, of course! and you get to bed a bit earlier than driving home thats for sure lol.
there were plenty of very nice meteors in 2001, you may have heard an electrophonic meteor by the sounds of it nice catch,
i know of quite a few people who saw, thru holes, the leonids from adelaide in 2001, mostly northern, n/e suburbs but, and they were blown away by just the small selection of the show they saw, a few were normally hardened anti-astronomers (they call us eggheads!) even, but were excited and impressed and very glad they watched

I see on spaceweather their are some claiming they briefly saw hundreds of meteors over Ireland - strange!