November 03, 2002 (rt23 news) - The Leonid Meteor Shower, named for it‘s apparent point of origin, the constellation Leo, occurs every November. At this time, the Earth moves through the path of dust/meteoroids from the passage of Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle. This debris is left over from centuries of the Comet‘s orbit of the Sun. The Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle visits the Sun every 33 years. Earth‘s orbiting satellite for communications and weather as well as the Hubble Space Telescope will be commanded to point away from Leo to prevent being damaged.

The peak night this year is Monday night into Tuesday morning, November 18 -19, approximately one day after we pass closest to the orbit of the Leonid parent comet (Tempel-Tuttle). Traditionally, November 17-18 was regarded as when maximum activity was to occur as was the case last year. However, this year, the various meteor specialists tell us that we will not encounter the heaviest activity until about 18-24 hours later.

Along the east coast of North America, the meteor outburst will happen just before local dawn. "That’s good," says Rob Suggs, leader of the NASA/MSFC Space Environments Team, "because at that time of night, the Moon will be low in the western sky. Try to find a dark observing site where the Moon sets early behind tall buildings or surrounding hills." During the Leonid meteor storm, Spaceweather.com will relay near-live reports from Suggs’ team and display meteor images from around the world.

Along the east coast of North America, the meteor outburst will happen just before local dawn. "That’s good," says Rob Suggs, leader of the NASA/MSFC Space Environments Team, "because at that time of night, the Moon will be low in the western sky. Try to find a dark observing site where the Moon sets early behind tall buildings or surrounding hills." During the Leonid meteor storm, Spaceweather.com will relay near-live reports from Suggs’ team and display meteor images from around the world.

Predicted 2002 Leonids Activity for New York City area - Bill Cooke of the NASA/MSFC Space Environments Group prepared city-by-city forecasts of Leonid activity in 2002. The colored curves denote predictions by the Asher-McNaught, Jenniskens, and Lyytinen-Van Flandern teams who successfully forecast the 2001 storm.

Here in the Greater New York area, 11 pm on November 18 will be when the radiant is only just beginning to emerge above the horizon. Normally, low-hanging radiants are bad news because they make shooting stars hard to see, but this is also the time when you might catch sight of an unusually beautiful type of meteor called an "Earth grazer" or "Earth skimmer." Earth grazers are long, bright shooting stars that can appear to streak from a point near or just below the horizon and embark on long, majestic paths that in some cases can take them more than halfway across the sky. They sometime display colorful halos and long lasting trails. Earth grazers are so distinctive primarily because they follow a path nearly parallel to our atmosphere.

The Leonid radiant will be near or just above the east-northeast horizon when our planet encounters this first peak of activity at 11:00 p.m. EST. The peak is expected to come on Tuesday morning, November 19, within a few minutes of 5:35 a.m. EST. Based on a consensus of several Leonid forecasts this second outburst should also last about 100 minutes from start to finish. In our area, advancing morning twilight will become an issue. The farther to the east one goes, the brighter the dawn sky will be. So, the fact that the Moon will be so low in the sky suggests that easterners might try to "hide" it from view. Blocking it behind some trees or a house will certainly be helpful. Even better would be something larger such as a high mountain, thus casting a larger/deeper shadow over your entire surrounding landscape.

Posted by: staff
Website: Near Live Leonid Watching System
November 03, 2002
19:44:22