Message-Id: <l03102800b26e6f1d0fb5@[209.142.17.127]>
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 17:04:44 -0900
To: pinhole@exploratorium.edu
From: Ronald Wong <ronwong@inreach.com>
Subject: Leonid Meteor Shower/Storm?
For those of you who are aware of the fact that next week the Leonid Meteor
Shower is scheduled to appear and are planning to take it in during the
pre-dawn hours of next week let me warn you of the fact that there seems to
be some confusion regarding the dates.
The diehards will, of course be up both mornings from 1:00 AM till sunrise
but for those of you who have an interest in such things, Tuesday morning
before the sun rises is probably the best time.
The peak is expected to be around 2000 UT (that is, 8:00 PM in Greenwich,
England) on November 17th. This is great if you live in North-East China
where the constellation, Leo, will be nicely positioned in the Eastern sky
a couple of hours before sunrise at that time. Those in London will
probably have to wait 4 or 5 hours before Leo rises high enough in the east
for them to take it in. We will be out of luck since it'll be high noon in
San Francisco at the time of the peak.
For people on the west coast the choice is to look for the shower before it
peaks on the 17th or after on the morning of the 18th. If your viewing time
was 3:00 AM, you'd be viewing the shower 9 hours before the peak on the
17th and 15 hours after the peak on the 18th. Assuming the increase in the
number of meteors viewed/time is numerically the same as the decrease and
that there is symmetry in the distribution of the rate around the peak,
then you'd be better off viewing the event 9 hours before than 15 hours
after. So, the ungodly hours of the morning of the 17th seems to be the
better of the two times.
If you want the nitty-gritty then look into the International Meteor
Organization:
http://www.imo.net/news/leohints.html
The American Meteor Society gives some pointers on the best way to prepare
for the event:
http://www.serve.com/meteors/leo-facts.html
Sky & Telescope magazine tells you why you'd better take it in this time
around and why the next time, 33 years later, will probably prove to be a
dud.
http://www.skypub.com/sights/meteors/3showers.html
Now if you're lucky, there will be a meteor storm this time around. Some
feel the past data warrants one but no one is willing to predict one (for
obvious reasons).
Let's just hope it's a clear night for the dedicated.
ron