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OT...Leonid Meteor Shower


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Don't know about the rest of the world, but I got up at 4 AM here on the east coast of the US to catch the show. I do a lot of sky-watching anyway... it's a great way to keep things in perspective, especially after a show like this. :D Truly amazing... :) Won't see anything like this 'till maybe 2066 or 2099. NASA had a web-cam set up in Huntsville, AL, but the server is overloaded. Anyone else catch it? Steve (stargazing...)
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Just caught the ISS (Intl Space Station) on a fly-by. This is the second time I've seen it. I found a great page at [url=http://www.heavens-above.com]www.heavens-above.com[/url] Once you enter your location, it tracks the ISS in realtime. God, I love this stuff! :D Steve
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I love astronomy. When I was a kid, one of my grandfathers worked up at Mt Wilson and at Mt Palomar, so I used to get to go up to the observatory with him fairly often on weekends. We even made a 12" Newtonian 'scope (ground the mirror and all, at the same place where they made the 200" Hale scope in Pasadena). And one of my clients has a undergrad degree from MIT and did all his grad studies at Caltech - Astrophysics - so I've ben fortunate to be able to hang with some pretty "heavy hitters" in the field over the years. It's absolutely amazing to contemplate all the wonders of the heavens... In all the years I've been watching the Leonids - sometimes up in the mountains, others out in the desert, this has been by FAR the most active year ever. We (my step-daughter and me) watched from our yard. No streetlights on our street and we're in a semi rural area, so it was pretty dark, but there's still going to be a lot of ambient light no matter where you go in Southern California. Still, as I said, given the fairly good but less than ideal conditions here, it was still absolutely SPECTACULAR! I'm just glad it wasn't a letdown like Comet Kahoutek was back in the '70's. :) If you missed it, you can still catch some activity for the next couple nights, but it won't be anything like tonight. I hope you all got to see it. Chances are we won't get another show like this ever again in our lifetimes. Phil O'Keefe Sound Sanctuary Recording Riverside CA http://members.aol.com/ssanctuary/index.html pokeefe777@msn.com
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You're a lucky guy, Phil. If I ever got into an observatory, you be hard pressed to get me to leave. :D Since 9/11, I find that more and more, I turn to the night skies for a little peace. Anytime I find myself getting wrapped up in my own problems or the problems of the world, just a short time looking up... make it all seem less significant in the 'grand scheme of things'. :) Cheapest therapy I've ever had! Steve
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RATS. It was cloudy in Kansas City. But, I've always found solace in the night skies. Seen some peaceful sights. I've seen some awesome sights as well. Like one night out driving a country road in Michigan, and looked out my window to see the whole sky moving! Scared the crap out of me for a split second, until I realized it was the Aurora. Brightest one I've ever seen. Went down to the beach and spent the whole night watching the sky dance. And the time driving across central Nebraska at night. Hmmm, had to, you know, pay back some coffee. Pulled off a deserted exit to water some bushes, looked up, and got an un-light-polluted view of the Milky Way. AWESOME. A lot of times, I'll take my kids out in the country for things like the Perseids and Leonids. Park the car, we'll just lay back on the hood, and talk about whatever's on their minds while we watch the show. Now, those are times I'll cherish forever.
"Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine"
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It was about a decade ago and I was sailing around on Lake Superior. We decided to head out to Isle Royal. (for the geographically challanged, it's the largest island in the middle of the largest body of fresh water on the planet.... Ok, I know i'm gonna get an argument on that staement. Superior is not largest in surface area,, but in hectacres of water) To say it was dark would be and understatement. Well, it just happens to be the heaviest night of the Persius meteor shower. WOW....so awesome. Makes you realize there is more to life than turning knobs.
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Yeah, I got up at 4:30, drove 1/2 mile down the road where there weren't many trees ( I'm in the woods in Maine) and caught a great show. Some of the sky was cloudy but I still saw @ 150 or so. There was a field nearby and I could hear two women and a small child oooohing and aaahing like at a fireworks show. Very peaceful. Puts things in perspective. Went back home and fell into a peaceful sleep... Good Morning everyone Bruce
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What I saw at 11:20 EST was one big screaming mother of a blazing orange streak coming from the east, not south east. The trail stayed visible for the whole 4-5 seconds I watched the object's path and it was not like a 'shooting star' trail at all, more like an orange flame trail. 1) that was kind of early compared to the suggested peak time 2) anyone who saw the main 'shower' period; did it look anything like that? We got clouded over by 1 am so I went to bed. Once 2 years ago I saw 3 objects travelling slowly in a triangular formation from north to south, high in the east. After about half an hour on the internet, I found it was a classified observation satellite system - NOS. I walk the dogs really late in the country and I'm always looking up to see what's new.
It's OK to tempt fate. Just don't drop your drawers and moon her.
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We saw several like that. And while many traveled from east to west, others were on different vectors. Probably the best display we saw was at approx. 0145 PST. Three, simultaneously, from east to west, directly overhead, and lots of "stay" on the trails. Tres cool! Phil O'Keefe Sound Sanctuary Recording Riverside CA http://members.aol.com/ssanctuary/index.html pokeefe777@msn.com
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Too bad, Valkie, you could have headed up to the mountains with my friends & I. we headed up the Angeles Crest highway around 1AM, in my 14 years of driving up there I've never seen so many cars there. We eventually got to a secluded spot off a little dirt fire road and the view was AMAZING, by far the best meteor shower I've seen, on a clear, beautiful night. Saw several with long flaring tails that flashed bright blue or red or green at the end of their run at the sky, and groups of 5 or 6 within seconds of each other, truly spectacular.Seemed to peak at around 3AM but we kept seeing them as we were driving home after 4. My 16 month old son's name is Leon so this was special for me. P.S. according to one JPL website tonight is supposed to be even better for the west coast!

Paul Berolzheimer

Progenitor of 2 amazing sound sources

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We had a gig Saturday night, and it was just pouring rain during most of the gig; when we started packing up the clouds broke, and I had my camera and tripod in the truck, so took off before we had finished loading (forgive me guys, I promise not to do that for another 300 years!). Drove out west of Brigham City to escape the town and Interstate lights, mounted my 50mm (would've preferred a wider lens but it's my fastest at f1.8), opened the shutter, and couldn't believe the number of meteors!! Great show, and can hardly wait to get the slides back tomorrow afternoon!

Botch

"Eccentric language often is symptomatic of peculiar thinking" - George Will

www.puddlestone.net

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I set the alarm for 4:30 and dragged myself outside around 5:15 EST. I was in central CT and sure enough, about every 10-15 seconds, the sky was being lit with some action. I didn't see any "blazing" streaks but saw plenty of really cool looking streaks that seemed to last less than a second. Really neat to see...after about 10 minutes of freezing my tail off I went back inside and called it a night. Now I'm sniffling, have a "heavy head" and a slght cough...better clear up for the DR trip this week...
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I crawled out to my deck in Reno, NV around 3:15 AM PST and saw a great show. I should have drug my ass out to the desert where it is darker, but I saw amazing things anyway. One particularly long & bright one lasted a good full 3000ms or so, longest and brightest I've ever seen. Froze my tail off, though.
Woof!
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