From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Fri Nov 15 2002 - 08:02:44 MST
http://homepage2.nifty.com/~baron/leo02forcast1.htm
See the Table above for where are the best sites to see the
the Leonids (which go through different 'strands' of the
meteor streams.
The plot shows two peaks: Europe should be able to see
the first dust trail, which is dust ejected from
comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle in 1767, and North America can
see the second dust trail, which is dust ejected during
1866 (nice eh?).
Observing Campaigns here:
More information here: (please look at the charts, also note that the
moon will be bright! Or you could use your telescope and count
meteors hitting the moon)
PREDICTIONS
http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/1998.html
(many tables, graphs, links)
METEOR ACTIVITY
Graph above shows the expected variation of Leonid meteor activity (in
numbers per hour under ideal observing conditions). Two Leonid storms
are expected with rates higher (3000-6000/hr) than in 2001, when the
Zenith Hourly Rate peaked at 1,300 /hr for the USA peak. Beware:
the next Leonid storms are not due until 2099!
OBSERVING LOCATIONS
View of Earth from the perspective of the incoming Leonids at the peak
of each storm. The circles show the height of the shower radiant, while
the vertical lines are various phases of twilight. The storms are best
seen on the left night-time side of each graph. Spain, for example,
has perfect viewing conditions for the 04:00 UT storm, while the USA
has excellent viewing of the 10:36 UT storm.
(Or get creative, since we in Europe will most likely be rained on:)
DO IT YOURSELF TIP: FLY TO SEE THE STORM! View it yourself airborne:
take a "red-eye" from U.S. west coast to mid-west cities in the evening
of November 18. For example, fly from Seatle to Minneapolis, Oakland to
Detroit, or Los Angeles to Detroit. The flights that arrive at their
destination just before or in twilight local time and are airborne
from 1:30-3:30 a.m. PST Nov 19 will provide excellent viewing, that is
if you can arrange a window seat. Another possibility is to arrange
a night-time flight from Europe to the (mid-) western parts of the
United States.
Note the Time (don't be a day late ) : night of Nov 18/19
For example
~04:00 UT is 5:00 am for us in Middle Europe
~10:36 UT is 2:36 am for you in California
U.T. = Universal Time, colloquially "Greenwich Mean Time"
Time Zone, Take UT and add the following
International Date Line East (IDLE)
New Zealand Standard Time (NZST)
New Zealand Time (NZT) +12 hours
Guam Standard Time (GST)
East Australian Standard Time (EAST) +10 hours
Japan Standard Time (JST) +9 hours
China Coast Time (CCT) +8 hours
West Australian Standard Time (WAST) +7 hours
India Standard Time (IST) +5.5 hours
Russian Zone 3 +4 hours
Baghdad Time (BT)
Russian Zone 2 +3 hours
Eastern European Time (EET)
Russian Zone 1 +2 hours
Central European Time (CET)
Middle European Time (MET)
Swedish Winter Time (SWT) +1 hours
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
Universal Time (UT)
Western European Time (WET) 0 hours
West African Time (WAT) -1 hours
Atlantic Standard Time (AST) -4 hours
Eastern Standard Time (EST) -5 hours
Central Standard Time (CST) -6 hours
Mountain Standard Time (MST) -7 hours
Pacific Standard Time (PST) -8 hours
Alaskan Standard Time (AkST) -9 hours
Hawaiian Standard Time (HST) -10 hours
International Date Line West (IDLW) -12 hours
Leonids News here:
http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/leonidnews40.html
-- ************************************************************************ 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 ************************************************************************ "We came whirling out of Nothingness scattering stars like dust." --Rumi
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jan 15 2003 - 17:58:08 MST