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What is meteorobs?

Email Access to meteorobs

History of meteorobs

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Frequently Asked Questions

Meteor-Related Links

How to View Meteor Showers

METEOR STORMS (Leonids etc.)

Going Deeper: Telescopic Meteors

MeteorObs
An Internet forum for meteor observers of all levels


What is 'meteorobs'?

Email list 'meteorobs', and this Web site, are dedicated to discussions relating to meteor astronomy and observing. The 'meteorobs' list is an open forum for amateur astronomers at all levels (and the professionals whose research they provide data to) to share their knowledge, interest, and observations of meteors. ("Meteor" is a scientific name for falling star, the bursts of light which are produced when a dust particle, also called a "meteoroid", enters the earth's atmosphere.)

If you have just seen a very bright light in the sky which you suspect is a "fireball" (i.e., bright meteor), please report it! Such sightings are of great interest to the scientific community, and your report may help locate a meteorite! See our "Frequently Asked Questions" page for more information on Reporting Fireballs.

If you would like to find out how YOU can see a "Shooting Star Show" in your area, please take the time to review in detail our pages on How to View Meteor Showers.

If you are interested in subscribing to the 'meteorobs' mailing list, you may use the MeteorObs Subscription Web form now! Otherwise, you may post a (moderated) message to the list even if you are not a subscriber.

All messages sent to the mailing list are distributed to all its subscribers, and are then stored in an archive accessible on the World Wide Web at: http://www.meteorobs.org/maillist/maillist.html, or more conveniently, organized month-by-month at: http://www.meteorobs.org/maillist/maillist-months.html

You can also use a Web form to search the Web archive by keyword: for example, you could view all past articles relating to the suspected "Xi Bootid" meteor shower by searching for the keyphrase "xi bootid" in our Web form...

"Yahoo!" also maintains a searchable and browsable archive of 'meteorobs', which covers all posts since January 1997. You can even sign up to receive 'meteorobs' (indirectly) through this site!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/meteorobs

Here's another wonderful tool for browsing and searching 'meteorobs', and many other astronomical mail archives, which also covers our posts back to 1997:
http://www.astroarchive.com


Want to read about the LEONIDS?

Here is an entire page devoted to the subject of meteor showers and meteor storms, and how they relate to one another. And in particular, look for our critical list of Web links related to the Leonid meteor shower!
http://www.meteorobs.org/storms.html#leonids

If you want to learn still more about the Leonids, we highly recommend the North American Meteor Network's "NAMN Notes" for November 2002, which contained very complete information about the predictions beforehand, and about how best to observe the Leonids last year:
http://www.namnmeteors.org/namnnotes0211.html


Clear skies!
Lew Gramer <dedalus@alum.mit.edu>