re: Leonid viewing experience

From: Amara Graps (Amara.Graps@mpi-hd.mpg.de)
Date: Sun Nov 18 2001 - 16:33:30 MST


hal@finney.org: Sun Nov 18, 2001

>It was a crazy night; I would never have dreamed that you would see
>that kind of traffic on those twisty mountain roads at 2 in the
>morning. I'm glad we got to see the Leonids, but I don't think I
>would do it again.

Still it warms my heart to know that so many people went to see it.
Astronomy events like the Shoemaker-Levy-9 impact, comet Hale-Bopp,
the '99 total solar eclipse, the Leonids, etc. gets people out and
*looking up*. Very important. It's nice feedback for astronomers too,
to see that nonastronomers are interested in astronomy.

I've not heard anything from the observing campaigns in Japan, but the
ESA Darmstadt live count chart shows the largest peak over the Pacific
to be almost 3000 per hour. I've been watching the peaks- there's
been four, but none higher rate than ~3000/hr. The predictions for the
densest 'clump' claimed about 8000 meteors per hour, so I'm eager to
find out more.

Amara

-- 
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Amara Graps, PhD             | Max-Planck-Institut fuer Kernphysik
Heidelberg Cosmic Dust Group | Saupfercheckweg 1
+49-6221-516-543             | 69117 Heidelberg, GERMANY
Amara.Graps@mpi-hd.mpg.de    * http://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/dustgroup/~graps
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"We came whirling out of Nothingness scattering stars like dust." --Rumi


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