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Re: (meteorobs) Leonids in the news

Terry,

The Leonids have a narrow peak and the drop off will be significant. In
addition the predictions you make reference to are possible encounters with
dust trails where there may be brief (hour or less) surges in the rates.

Since the normal Leonids are not all that bright and the moon is right at
the radiant I would discourage a public viewing for inexperienced people as
being bad publicity for astronomy-akin to the comet Kohoutec fiasco of some
years ago which made some long lasting enemies for astronomy.

I am taking my students out but with lots of preparation and low expectations.

Good luck,

Terry

>I'm sure most of you have seen the write-up of the Leonids on NASA's Science
>News site (http://spacescience.com/headlines/y2000/ast10oct_1.htm?list).  I
>was looking over the peak time(s) predictions and was wondering something...
>
>I live in Tennessee (CST), and it looks to me like the times are going to
>fall on the nights of the 16/17 and 17/18 for me.  Will the drop-off of the
>rate be drastic enough to discourage me from observing on the night of the
>18/19th?  I was hoping make a public announcement of the shower and get
>about 50 people together for the show.
>
>Also, with a last-quarter moon in the midst of the action, what is the
>expected visible rate if the ZHR is >100?
>
>Thanks!
>--Terry
>
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*****************************************
Terry Richardson
Department of Physics and Astronomy
College of Charleston
Charleston, SC 29424
pager #937-1048
843 953-8071 phone
843 953-4824 fax
http://www.cofcdot edu/~richardt/

Office Location: Science Center Room 102

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Terry Richardson
College of Charleston Dept. of Physics
58 Coming St., room 101
Charleston, SC 29424

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