Leonid Meteor Shower Delights Many

Associated Press ^ | November 18, 2001 | By ANDREW BRIDGES, AP Science Writer

[MeekOneGOP]

Would you believe that is the ONLY picture I can find of last nights Leonid Meteor shower? Sooooo. . .here are links to PRIOR shower shows!:

2000 LEONID METEOR SHOWER

1998 LEONID METEOR SHOWER

[Grampa7030]

I got up at 2AM to watch it in Poulsbo, WA. Beautiful, clear but cold evening. This was truly spectacular and we once saw seven in a period of ten seconds. My wife and I watched for about 45 minutes and it never really let up from a rate of about 5 - 10 per minute (that we could see) in all areas of the sky.

[stilts]

Truly a beautiful show. The long ones with the shimmering tails were incredible. I was watching along the coast in Orange County California and even with the light "pollution" we could a couple every minute. Quite an awe inspiring sight.

[RHammm]

Down here in So. Cal. in a very remote location from 1:30 to 3 a.m. we saw 30 to 40 per minute, one of the best showers I've seen in years.

[Bigg Red]

We watched here in Maryland. It was inspiring!

[VOYAGER]

I got up at 2AM to watch it in Poulsbo, WA. Beautiful, clear but cold!

I got up at one o'clock in the morning of the 18th and stayed up until 5:00am saw one earthgrazer traveling from east to west horizontally about half way above the horizon for about 40 degrees before it burned out.

That kept me up for the four hours I was outside waiting on the next remarkable sighting.

Outside of a few very dim and exceptionally short spurts of almost no magnitude and which if you weren't looking in that direction you would miss them.

These unremarkable sightings were occurring very high in the bowl of the sky and weren't worth the loss of 4 hours of sleep except for the one fanstastic "shot across the bow" of heaven.

Visibility was fantastic, about 45 degrees above the horizon for about 180 degrees of the circle,east to west horizontally.

The viewing locale, geographically, was about 240 surface miles east of El Paso. Texas on I-20.The event was practically a noshow.

I demand a refund!!

[JustPiper]

I waited weeks for it, researched were best to go outside Chicago and was anxiosuly waiting to leave on a two hour trek to join a farm party from the Adler Planetrium. then bam, about 7pm in rolls the fog blanketed by extreme clouds everywhere and I was so disappointed I could cry at this lost chance of a lifetime.

By the way I have family minutes from mount Wilson! Those lucky gazsers ;(

[Winged Elf]

Woke up, walked outside, saw four of 'em. Figured "big deal", walked back inside and went back to sleep. About the only thing I got out of it was that my cold got ten times worse. >:(

[kcat]

I watched in Alabama beginning at about 4:30 a.m.. Many of them left flourescent green trails. It was absolutely AWESOME!!!!!! You couldn't look at one without another appearing in the corner of your eye. One of the coolest things I have ever seen.

[TEXASPROUD]

We had solid cloud cover in Dallas, last night, just my luck.

[GeorgeWashington777]

I went outside here in eastern Washington at about 12:00 or 12:30am and looked up and seen about three awesome ones, one had a tail that covered half the sky. Went in grabbed a blanket and pillows and sat outside for about 15 minutes and didn't see anymore. I'm sure it was great a little later.

[VOA]

We had solid cloud cover in Dallas, last night, just my luck.

You and my cousin in North Dallas.
I got localize fog/haze here in West Los Angels...but folks further inland (and higher up)
such as MT. Wilson apparently got a great show.

[Kevin Curry]

I envy you. Cloud cover ruined my view. In January or February of 1979 (1980?) the umbra of a total solar eclipse passed directly over my location. Cloud cover ruined my view then, too. The change from daylight to darkness back to daylight again was impressive, but not nearly as impressive as I had been hoping for.

[Coleus]

I woke up at 5 AM, skies clear, could see stars, and that's is all I saw. What a waste of time. I was glad I was able to go back to sleep.

[Crimson]

Got my kids up at 0300, went to the back yard and had a great time watching the show! Excellent!

[tubebender]

Partial Vanity Warning. I wandered my wooded lot from about 10:30 till 11:30 looking in the east as told. Low colds but stars were visible over head. Came in and out for a while while watching NASA. Fially Mzz Mitzi Adams told me I was looking in the wrong place so I srepped out on the deck and looked due south and there was Orion bright and clear. It was 12:30 PDT here in Eureka Ca. as I slipped off my clothes , grabbed a glass of wine and jumped in the hot tub. It was 1:30 and at 1:35 I saw my first meteor. THAT WAS IT. for the next hour I sipped and watched. Nothing Nada Zilch! 2:30 I crawled out lookin like a albino prune and checked on Mzz Mitzi as she was ranting on about all the neat streaks and at that time I realized this was the moon landing all over again and she was laying in her sleeping bag on the back lot of Disney Studios. I did finally see about 25 in about 15 minutes before clouds shut it down.

[MeekOneGOP]

I was dead tired this morning when I hit the sack at 2:30. It was clear until just before then and every time I went out to my backyard, no meteors. Perhaps I didn't stay out long enough at a stretch, or the local lights were just not helping? Either way, once the clouds rolled in, I was finished - dead tired too. I usually call it a night by 9 or 9:30 because I usually get up real early. That's all right. I plan on catching the next "Really Big Shew" in 2099! Oh, yeah - you betcha! ;-)

[MeekOneGOP]

What a waste of time. I was glad I was able to go back to sleep.

;-( Sorry - my experience as well.

Location: The Garbage State

That's funny! ;-)

[The Game Hen]

The chicks and I had a great view here in Charleston from 3:30 - 6:00. Getting to church on time was murder!

And the Gamecocks beat the Tigers! Man it just doesn't get any better than this!

[Huck]

My wife and I went to a nearby state park, to get away from the stretlights, etc, and watched for two hours until it finally fizzled out around 6am EST. We just kept saying WOW!, THERE'S ANOTHER ONE!, OOOH!, etc.

And all day today I've been thinking bout how much fun we had last night. It was chilly, about 34 degrees, but we were dressed for it and had a great time. Sorry for the folks who had clouds. I am very thankful we were able to see it all on a clear night.