Leonid Meteor Showers (1 Viewer)

[Seungsoo Hwang]

Wow, seattle here, UW campus. Even with all the city lights and stuff, average between 15 seconds between each meteor in 2:00-3:00. Glad I was around for this one.

 

[Dennis Reno]

AAAARGH!!!! It is so foggy you can't see 500 feet. Guess I missed one hell of a show...

 

[Henry Gale]

Good Fortune in my part of of South Central Texas. The forwcast was for cloudy skies but when I went out to look at 4:20 there were stars and streaks!
Got the whole family up and threw a bunch of air mattress, sleeping bag and throws in the back of the pickup. We drove a few miles to get get away from my clueless neighbors "security" lights and to get to a back road with zero traffic.
A fine time was had by all.

 

[Dheiner]

Clouds.
Sheet.

 

[Dana Fillhart]

Had fun last night -- got to watch my first-ever meteor shower! Sadly I didn't get in the count ranges that others got, but it was still a lot of fun!
Since I live in Light Pollution Central (or more commonly known as the New York metro area) I drove 50 miles out of the way just to get a good view ... and what a spectacular view it was!
Sitting in the dark in my car, at the side of the road by the entrance to Exit 2 of I84 in New York, my friend and I sat with the moonroof open and one window down, gazing at the streaks made across the sky. From time to time I'd start the car up to get some heat, but for the most part we just sat there, staring and ogling, going "ooooooh!" and "ahhhh!" many many times. One quite amuzing moment came when Dave said, "Hey, look at that streak over there -- that's a really long one! Hey, why isn't it fading? Oh." It happened to be a jet plane very high in the atmosphere -- as it was passing through very cold air in the region, the heat from the exhaust was crystallizing the water vapor, and (for the first time I've ever seen it at night) a miles-long trail could be seen that looked exactly like one of the meteor's trails.
Almost all of them lasted for only a second or two -- some were very bright, like the tip of a welder's torch. One I didn't actually see directly actually lit up the entire sky like a flash of lightning.
All in all, it was a great night, and I'm glad I took the time to enjoy some of Nature's wonders. Probably the best part was actually getting to see the regular sky again -- where I live, 90% of the stars I saw last night I never get to see due to light pollution.
It's in those rare moments you really appreciate the things you often take for granted.
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[Kolya]

I sat with the moonroof open and one window down, gazing at the streaks made across the sky. From time to time I'd start the car up to get some heat,

that's exactly what I did too, in the hills west of Patterson, CA.
Best meteor shower I've ever seen. Watching the show really reminded me of when my fathers friend took me out to see Halleys comet in '86(?); one of those special astronomic phenomena that happen once in a lifetime.

 

[Mark Dubbelboer]

I am so freaking envious.
After striking out on the weather I headed to nasa.com to see if i could find a live feed and their severs were overloaded. argh.
to make matters worse, i drove up to my uncle's today and he said they had one of the clearest brightest nights ever last night and that the view was awe inspiring. just my luck

 

[DaveF]

I got up at about 4 am, woke my apt-mate, and we went out to a nearby park, reasonably isolated from city and street lights. More impressively, for Rochester, was a perfectly clear sky!
We relaxed in 30° weather, in new lawn chairs, and enjoyed the show. This was my first meteor shower, and I was VERY impressed. There were some spectacular shooting stars, with a trail that took a second or two to fade. And even more fainter streaks.
I envy those who were out in the boonies; I imagine there was a veritable fireworks show, hidden by the light pollution.
It was fantastic; even better than Harry Potter, which I watched just a few hours earlier I attempted to take photos. If any come out, I'll post 'em.

 

[John Thomas]

Great show - for about 10 seconds, it appeared that about 20 fell. They just kept coming. The thought that one may land did enter my head..

 

[Coressel]

I saw about 20 - 25 between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m. from my back yard, even with street lights around my neighborhood on.
I didn't see anything from 5 - 5:30, almost gave up, then suddenly this thing shot across the sky as if someone next door had fired off a Roman Candle!
Amazing stuff!

 

[Alex-C]

Man.

I stayed up until 3 am pacific and barely saw anything.

It was foggy on the horizon, but straight up it was clear and I only saw a few.

Best shooting stars I ever saw were in the middle of the Desert (Glamus for those who care).

It was awesome.

 

[Joe Bernardi]

I watched from 4-5:40 AM (100 minutes) and saw 130 meteors, not counting some that I may have sensed in peripheral vision but had disappeared by the time I moved my eyes. The most I saw at the same time was four. I did enjoy the occasional bright long-lasting streaks like fireworks tails.