Leonid Meteor Shower Nov. 15-17 (peaking Sunday Early before Sunrise!!)

[jrista]

Well, I thought I'd start a thread for this. Not sure if anyone will get anything...the moon is full tonight, nice and bright...and it may ruin the show. The Orionids were mooned out this year as well, and here in Colorado we had cloudcover.

The Leonids peak in the early morning hours before sunrise, which means the moon will be lower towards the western horizon. Leo will be up high in the sky, but hopefully any meteors radiating towards the east will be visible and capable of being captured by a camera.

As an extra treat, Comet ISON reached naked-eye visibility today, so it should be visible, a little below Mars near the horizon, around the same time that the Leonids peak. ISON is a fairly fast moving comet, and it hasn't brightened all that much, so with the hunter's moon you might not see anything...but still, worth a try I guess.

Anyway, if you get any pictures, post 'em here!

 

[jrista]

Well, not much of a shower this year. I think I spotted two meteors total with my eyes. Between the bright moon, and eventual cloud cover, nothing really interesting.

Did some research, and it seems the Leonids won't be exhibiting much more than their "base" ZHR of 10-15 for decades. It won't be until 2094 before another thousands-per-hour Leonid meteor storm occurs (the last ones were in 2000 and 2001, which ZHR's of over 6000 and over 4000, respectively.) Kinda sad.

In 1833, the Leonids gained their fame with reported hourly rates well over 200,000 per hour...the entire sky from the Rockies to the Appalachians was lit up a continual shower of meteors...too bad they didn't have DSLR cameras back then...I'd have loved to see what that looked like