|
This year the weather cooperated nicely. No fog! Some areas had some light haze and partly cloudy skies but those cleared off for the most part by about 4am.
Submit your Leonids report and pics!
We would love to post your Leonids observations and photos so that others in the Region can vicariously experience the event.
- Jim B., Severna Park, MD
Just to let you know, I would up watching the shower from our local elementary school, and it was great! Not the storm I had been hoping for, but a couple per minute. Several other folks were there, some with their children; so I went home and woke up my 8-year-old girl. She was thrilled to be up at 5:00 AM wrapped in a sleeping bag on the back deck, with nothing but her face showing, watching her first falling stars! So I'm just as glad I stuck close to home for this one.
As an unexpected bonus, we saw the Space Station fly overhead right around 5 AM.
- Elizabeth W.
After I finished my class (and helping the next one), I managed to leave the observatory by about 9:15pm. Class had been hindered by some heavy haze and partly cloudy skies, so I was very worried about the rest of the night. Once I got home, I checked several satellite images. My husband and I concluded that heading east would be our best bet. So from Alexandria, VA, we headed east on Highway 4 in Maryland, then onto 264 and 265, found a dirt road beside an empty field and parked. We arrived about 12:30am. He snoozed for the next several hours. I observed from the car but saw few meteors. I had an alarm set for about 4am (in case I fell asleep), but at 4 there wasn't much happening. Reset it to 4:30, still not much activity. Reset it to 5am, grabbed the feather blanket, fell asleep (didn't mean to but I was exhausted), jumped awake and saw a bright sky and thought that we had slept through, but it turned out to be because of the moon. Looked out just in time to see the ISS appear and head down into the SSE. Leaned out of the car and watched the sky for the next 35 minutes, but there really wasn't much activity, at least not like last year. There was more than a Perseid meteor shower, but not as impressive as last year's Leonids. In general, this year's were very fast, greenish, and not as many fireballs. Didn't take any photos cause the pics would've been too washed out by the moon.
Last Updated: Wednesday October 08, 2008 by Elizabeth Warner
|
