Leonid Meteor Shower

[shaneaust (Mick)]

After looking at numerous sites about this phenomenon and getting numerous answers, where in the sky and at what date and time should viewers in Victoria look to see the LMS?

[dannat (Daniel)]

leonids best day should be november 17/18 - there is a thread already on this site..they will be originating from the constellation Leo & so the best time will be the mroning just before sunrise..Leo will be in the eastern part of the sky, low down - it rises about 3:00am, sunup is about 6 ish - so between those times ..oo i found the link http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ad.php?t=52400

[Quark (Trevor)]

Hi Shane,

No mystery here, if you can see the constellation of Leo you have a chance of seeing the LMS.
Get a star wheel and dial it up for Nov 16th to 19th. Leo will be low in the North East by about 3AM. Leo is inverted from our perspective, you need to look for the head of Leo as the radiant for the LMS is within the head of Leo. Look for a large inverted question mark or sickle, this marks the head of Leo. We may see some meteors on the 16th and 17th but the peak should be on the 18th. The problem with that is the time the peak will likely occur may be to late for us and may be in daylight. That said anything can happen and if you don't make the effort to have a look you will see nothing.

I have attached a most excellent plot that was in a bulletin by Sky & Telescope that shows the Earths path relative to the debris trails laid down by Comet Temple Tuttle over the centuries that we may pass through.

Regards
Trevor

[shaneaust (Mick)]

Thanks guys!

[jadeia (Adam)]

Hi all,

I'm from Perth looking forward to seeing Leonids for the first time.

From the various sites I've visited I get the impression that if I set up my deck chair from around midnight - I should see some action before 3 or 4 am Wed morning - Does this sound about right?

Cheers!

[Blue Skies (Jacquie)]

From my experience the best time is between 2am to 4am. You may get a few earthgrazers from around midnight onwards but its not common. Generally you don't get meteors unless the radiant is above the horizon. Leo doesn't rise until mid morning for us. Also, you start to get twilight from 3.30am onwards and by 4am its usually gotten too light to see anything.

Weather forecast for Wed morning is not that good for Perth, so I'm not getting that excited about it. Most Perth amateurs know that a "Leonid storm event" is usually a meteorological event, not an astronomical one!

[seanliddelow (Sean)]

Did a 'storm' ever happen in 1999? I know it was predicted. The next 'storm' should be in 2032 or 2033 (Cant wait)