Posted on 11/06/2005 11:14:30 PM PST by eldoradude
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Alisha Klingenmeyer of Anchorage recalled spotting an orange-red fireball streaking across the sky as she drove north at about 8 p.m. Thursday. Paul Vos was watching a movie with his wife and son at their home in Hope at about 8:30 p.m. the same night when all three saw an arc of light over the mountains in the southern sky.
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This year's Taurids, whose weeklong peak of meteor activity NASA said would start today, were expected to be brighter and more frequent than usual, Chappelow said.
"We're running through the (comet's) orbit, which is like a flow, an orbiting ellipse of debris, and we're passing through an especially dense knot of this stuff," he said.
The better viewing is generally after midnight, and the best time is in the vicinity of 3 a.m., said Don Martins, chair of the UAA Department of Physics and Astronomy.
I remember walking up a mountain road in Juneau from 11pm to 2am, just staring at the northern lights. Never saw anything so beautiful. I'll bet the meteor shower is beyond awesome.
I saw the Leonids (?) 3 years ago 11/27 in Japan. It was something else!!!
Did you happen to see this?
BTTT
www.spaceweather.com has an ani-gif of a tuarid caught on camera.
I have seen five of them here in NH. But that was Thursday and Friday evening. I thought it was fireworks for a brief second - not like any meteor shower I have witnessed!
I saw that yesterday. It is beautiful.
I got a question: If the dust particles &/or pebbles that make up meteorites show up in the same part of the sky at the same time of year, year after year, then that must mean they are not orbiting the Sun like we are. So why don't they just fall toward the Sun, instead of staying in one place like they seem to do?
I ain't no expert, so corrections are welcome. Sounds good to me though.
No, it has been overcast, plus light pollution makes starwatching nearly impossible on even the clearest night.
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