What Leonids!!!

[Vince1963]

Hi SGL fans. Just want to share my thoughts with you. Did anyone get up at 3am to catch the hight of the Leonid's?, WELL... that was disappointing wasn't it?. I stayed out an hour and saw a big fat zero... But all wasn't lost though, After going in for a warm up an a pot of tea i went out again with mu 15x70s and had a look at the usual stuff, It always seems to start with Orion's nebula though and then M44 and m45, I'd been out earlier (about 11pm) and managed to view M81 and i thought i could see M82 but not sure if my eye's where seeing things as i was hoping to see it, I know its difficult through Bin's. One thing that did have me stumped was a bright light almost the mag of Venus moving east to west close to the Ecliptic, I listened very carefully for any noise of any kind but couldn't hear a thing, I looked through my Bin's for any other colours of light but nothing no vapour trail either. This was at approx 5:32am, did anyone see it?... Was it the ISS?, hopefully someone will be able to answer that one. Anyway that's that. Catch you all later

[cotterless45]

Leonids peak was on the 17th, above our clouds here. Saw a few weak ones in that area from 2.30 this morning, nothing spectacular.

one passed through the fov when looking at the bright galaxy NGC2903 to Leo's head,

Nick.

[Vince1963]

Oops!... trust me to get the wrong date lol....oh well!, i wouldn't have seen it yesterday either as there where clouds here.. thanks for that Nick

[Photosbykev]

I was out with my cameras from 8pm last night until 04:30 this morning and saw 4 cracking smokers, bright and slow and about 30 other smaller trails. Still ploughing through my images but I know I didn't get too many captures even with two cameras. One was a fisheye covering 170 degrees of the sky !!!

The visible ISS passes are around 5-7am at the moment

[MrsR]

I saw 1 last night

[jason.p]

I was out at around 10pm with the scope and caught four. They were small, fast and short duration. Not sure if they were Leonids, but they were in the NE.

(Jupiter was amazing as usual )

[beetlejuice]

Clouded out here ...again.

[claire1985]

2!!!!! That was it!! Out from midnight till 2am then back out at 3.30 for half an hour but had to come in due to a poorly little one coughing her lungs up. ( she was in bed btw not out with me) first time I've ever stayed up and put in some effort to see a shower and was disappointed, but.... I did have a nose around the sky with my bins for the first time, looked at Orion and saw the sword and I'm guessing the nebula. Looked at betlegues and a few other things that I'm not sure of. Fantastic night of star hopping and just learning the sky but totally lucked out with the Leonids! And now I'm very very tired coz I had little one in my bed from 4am!

[stargazerslivingroom]

Well I'm glad it wasn't just me....I saw zero and I, too, thought they peaked last night. Don't know where I read that. Whenever I see the ISS it is travelling from SW to NE so not sure what Vince saw. As for Jason's sightings, NE is where I was looking at Leo but that was more like midnight to 1.00pm....Had Leo risen as early as 10.00pm?

[Betelgeux]

I saw one but, contrary to jason.p, it was long and lasted for quite a few seconds. I got a bit cold though, condensation on the scope froze.

[stevetynant]

About half a dozen I would estimate over a group observing session last night before the cold got to every one, beautiful clear night though.

[SteveNickolls]

Very clear here at 3.00AM. In the space of 30 mins there was one Leonid lasting a second no more and 3 fainter, briefer background meteors travelling towards Leo.

Cheers,

Steve

[ronin]

The Leonids occur over a number of nights, 17th was simply predicted to be the peak.

Wiki give the period as 6 Nov to 30 Nov.

Went out for a couple of hours until 2:30 then gave up, not a thing.

Couple of high planes and a satellite or two.

One nice big meteor, just the opposite side of the sky from Leo.

To be honest this seems about normal for meteor showers, as in none.

Do I bother thinking of the Geminieds in Dec?

[Vince1963]

Hi Guy's, Yes i think we can say disappointing.... I just expected more from the Leonids as there supposed to be one of the better meteor showers, I read some where that the Leonids where very spectacular in 1968 (i might be wrong on the year), But that doesn't always follow every year, its all down to were in the remains of the debris in the comets tail we happen to pass through... In 1968s shower there where as many as 1000 per hour which is pretty spectacular. Funny thing is i never heard my dad ever mention them or anyone else.

[nephilim]

Well, I managed 3 (2 short & 1 of about a second) on the 16th, 17th was thick cloud (no suprise there then) and 2 in the early hrs of the 18th, better than nothing i suppose.

[andrew63]

Well from your account it sounds very much like you saw the ISS - at least it made up a little from missing some leonids! It passed over us at around 5.30 am depending on your location.

andrew

[tich]

I saw 5 from 1:45 till 4:00am then the cold beat me, I never managed to capture any so ended up pointing the camera on Orion & took a few shots with various lenses then went home to bed.

[David Smith]

Did see a cracker at ~23:00 last night, left a 40 degree+ long trail across the sky. That was it though, gave up at 02:00 due to lack of activity and some cloud cover. I was out Saturday night / Sunday morning as well but only saw a couple.

Quite dissappointing, fingers crossed for the Geminids in a few weeks.

[bus_ter]

If you had a time machine then 1833 would have been a good year.

Wikipedia says.. "One estimate is over one hundred thousand meteors an hour,[8] but another, done as the storm abated, estimated in excess of two hundred thousand meteors an hour[1]"

Can you imagine?

[Vince1963]

Hi Bus_ter... Can you imagine the folk of those days would have thought the end was upon them. would have been great to see that shower.

[andrew63]

Appears 2001 was a good year!

Astronomy Picture of the Day

andrew

[AndrewG]

It was a clear night on the 17th so managed some imaging, I lost 5 subs to aircraft and only 2 to meteors.... those pesky planes heading to Manchester.

Therefore for me more planes than meteors; maybe it should be a no fly zone when the lights go out !

[LukeSkywatcher]

I was observing from 10pm and didnt see a leonid til 1:24am. I stayed out til 3:30am and saw 15 of them and 5 non-leonids. Not the most impressive meteor shower i have ever seen but i'll take it because it was the only one i have seen in about 3 yrs.

[Lorne]

Out with a few of our group we had mixed success. I managed 2 Leonids and 1 random (least seen amongst us ), wasnt helped by the fact there was intermittent rain showers between gaps of clear sky, followed by a snow shower, it cleared again but by that time we were cold and miserable so called it a night quite early.

Looking towards the Geminids now as last years offered me my best meteor spotting night since I took up the hobby - over 30 in 90 minutes

[marsman]

Hi All

yep 5.30 for the ISS and I got it in some of my last expesures. I left cameras going all night and go nothing here in lincs, may be the Geminids will make up for it.