Reminder: annual Leonid meteor shower this w/e 18/19 nov

[fringe_dweller]

I know Ken has mentioned it in his Snake Valley astro camp thread - I thought it deserved its own thread.
Even tho the normal peak is on the 17th UT (morning of 18th for us), and is ideally timed for dawn in most of oz, there is an interesting double peak this year with another possibly viewable on the morning of 19th (sunday morn/dawn)
The info out there says the second peak is at 4:45 ish 19th UT - say so around 3 or so in the afternoon on sunday for Adelaide - its still closer to the ideal near dawn (the closer to dawn, but still dark, the better I would think) on sun morn for us here.
some say this peak will only be about half an hour in duration!? so we may see nothing of interest - but we might too :)
Plus, it splitting hairs maybe, but there is even less partial/sliver moon interference near dawn on sunday morn than sat morn, as its closer to the date of the new moon of course, and a ~10% illuminated moon (sat morn) is still brightish imo.
And the (northern) Western Australian coast would be the best place from oz to get closest to the second peak I spose, anyone in Broome here? :-))

http://www.imo.net/calendar/2006/fall

[jjjnettie]

Another shower happening at the same time are the Alpha-Monocerotids. Visable in the late evening.

[fringe_dweller]

Good point JJ!
they might even rival or equal the activity of the leonids, possibly? or at least supplement the fun, I have seen them do that before in slow years. But there is something about the leonids, they seem to have the best meteors to me, and they also have that mystique/aura as they are the most legendary of all the annual showers of course. :) star quality?

[jjjnettie]

Can you imagine what the 1833 Leonid Shower was like? Hunderds of thousands of meteors an hour!!
I know the chances are ever so slim (non-existant), but what if it did that again and you weren't out there to see it happen.

[ving]

how mant mph are we expecting for the leonids and monocerotids?
and what time do the later peak?

[jjjnettie]

ZHR for Leonids 100-150
ZHR for Monocerodtids is 5 and are active from the 15th to the 25th of Nov, they peak on the 21st. 1995 they achieved 420 per hour in a 5 minute burst.
Info from Astronomy 2006.

[fringe_dweller]

I can only try an imagine it JJ, even harder to imagine also if you didnt expect it and know exactly what was happening!! yep we can at least dream about such activity! and no, I wouldnt be a happy little vegemite if i missed that! :mad2: :tasdevil:

[fringe_dweller]

David, to add to what JJ has said, re leonids 'mph' I would expect maybe at least somewhere around at least 10-15 per hour at best on sat morning, and who knows sunday morn, the possible 100-150 maximum is really only for a short spurt (and you would half that figure, seeing it only goes for a half an hour dont forget), and not favourable for us here, according to the experts predictions, but the leonids is the most studied shower in history, and they are pretty spot on usually with predictions as a result.
We *may* get some early 'crumbs' from the speccy peak on sunday morning - at least thats what I am hoping for personally, altho thin high cloud/cirrus is predicted for us here on the w/e, at last look, unfortunately, but nice comfy minimum of 15 C!