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Leonid Meteor Activities!

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Ad Astra

Ad Astra

Posted
Posted

Hello Folks,

In my astronomy class, we are gearing up to have our 12th annual meteor shower night and go observing the Leonid meteors. True, the moon will not be terribly favorable this year, but it is an awful lot of fun to go out with a friend, a couple of lawn chairs, a thermos of hot coffee and watch the fireworks!

I've attached my meteor shower lab materials, which include an instruction sheet on how to find the radiant of the meteor shower once you're done observing, a meteor log sheet, and a sky map (courtesy of our friends at Sky & Telescope magazine!)

For those of you who aren't familiar - you can log on to S&T's web site, register for free, and then get interactive sky maps and free PDF maps that you can print out. Thanks, S&T!!! ;)

I have kids record meteors on the map as an arrow showing direction and length of the meteor, then record the details on the log sheet. If you get 24 meteors (one log sheet's worth), you should be able to do a pretty good job finding the radiant point of the shower.

Meteor showers are a bit different from a regular meteor event. The shower occurs as the Earth plows through the trail of cometary debris at some 30,000 kph (orbital speed!). Just like a car driving through a snow storm at night, the flakes of debris are essentially stationary by comparison and the meteors all seem to eminate from the point you are moving toward. If you've driven a car in the snow at night, you are familar with this. The flakes all seem to fan out from a point in front of the car where the headlights focus. -- It is the same for meteors! :)

Have some fun and let me know how you do!

Dan

Lab #16 - Finding the radiant of a meteor shower.doc

Leonid Meteor Shower Log.doc

Leonid Meteor skychartPDF.pdf

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Mr Q

Mr Q

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They say a scope or binoculars are not useful in observing a meteor shower but I have looked at a shower's radiant with a scope and was amazed at the bright flashing stationary meteors. Of course, you can observe the radiant with the un-aided eye but with a scope, the fainter meteors at the radiant add to the fireworks.

Sometimes, it's productive to break the rules when it comes to stargazing!

And how about making wishes for new observing equipment with each 'shooting star' seen? I know, its silly to but you just never know!

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Mr Q

Mr Q

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If anyone sees one can they make a wish that the clouds and rain will go away so the rest of us can see them.

Ta very much.

POOF! Your wish is granted but I have to warn you that my link to who it may concern is kinda slow these days so keep your fingers crossed just in case:D

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Mr Q

Mr Q

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Posted
This thread is starting to sound like a Vacation Advert for the lovely desert here in the Southwestern US of A. :)

Dan

I feel so bad for all these people dealing with frequent cloudy skies. I just moved from the high deserts of north central NM and at 6500''elevation and with very dark skies, observing was a dream come true except for the constant winds. Alas, had to move back to the humid and light polluted skies of southern New England. But the conditions here still beat what the poor Brits have to put up with. I miss seeing my diffused shadow on the ground from the bright star clouds in Cygnus and Sag.

Having many cloud free nights in the SW U.S. made me take them for granted. Cheer up guys - when the clouds break, it'll make your night's observing all that more appreciated ;) Mr Q

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claire1985

claire1985

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Posted

It's been a beautiful clear cloud free day here in Birmingham and now the sun is setting like magic the rain clouds are out, showers forcast for all night :-( so gutted, never seen a meteor shower before :-( was really looking forward to it!! Xxx

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