The Lion’s Share

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Remember the Orionids? Well, it is the turn of the Leonids, this Saturday and Sunday (although those are just the peak days). These comets are the result of us passing through the debris left by comet Tempel-Tuttle. The peak will be on the 19th November…. Viewing and other information here (Armagh Observatory), here (a NASA site), and here, from Gary W. Kronk’s site (as is the diagram below). Here’s a nice Space.com article by Joe Rao.

There is expected to be quite a spike in the viewing rate this year… enhanced by a factor of ten to maybe as many as 100 or 200 per hour. This is for the lucky viewers in Western Europe (and the British Isles 🙂 ), North Western Africa, North Eastern USA and Eastern Canada, although there will be good viewing at points south of those regions too. The time? 11:45 p.m. Saturday through about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, Eastern Standard Time.

Of course, they are all apparently coming from the constellation Leo (hence their name):

leonids

Tell me what you saw, since my own viewing situation will not be optimum, and so I will live vicariously through your reports…

-cvj

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6 Responses to The Lion’s Share

  1. Pingback: Leonids Ahoy! - Asymptotia

  2. Clifford says:
    November 20, 2006 at 6:12 am

    Thanks!

    -cvj

  3. astromcnaught says:
    November 20, 2006 at 3:05 am

    This is nice: http://www.imo.net/live/leonids2006.html
    The Leonid results are plotted in real-time as observations are submitted to the website.

    Early indications are of a max ZHR around about 60.

  4. candace says:
    November 19, 2006 at 2:20 pm

    astromcnaught was luckier than we were — we went up to stay in Cromer lighthouse for the weekend and woke up at 4am to see the peak. We stood out in the freezing cold for at least 15 minutes and only saw about 3 faint meteors. V. disappointing, but the weekend was lovely otherwise.

  5. Clifford says:
    November 19, 2006 at 6:54 am

    Wow! That’s great…. I wish I’d been able to see them. Leo does not rise in time over here in the West for the peak to have been visible.

    Thanks!

    -cvj

  6. astromcnaught says:
    November 19, 2006 at 3:19 am

    Utterly perfect conditions in Hampshire England, which i did a double take at. It’s never clear for the Leonids, its a rule!!
    Anyway, finally got outside at about 4.50 GMT.
    Saw 7 in about 15 mins, all quite bright – mags 3 to 0 with nice trains.
    4 of the 7 arrived within 2 mins of each other.
    If i missed all the promised fainter ones then the ZHR* must have been around about a hopeful 100 or so?

    *ZHR – Zenithal Hourly Rate. The numbers counted in an hour under ideal conditions (including ideal observer, not me).