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Re: (meteorobs) leonids in us

In a message dated 10/31/01 11:13:40 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
KCStarguy@aol.com writes:

<< The leonids are supposed to storm for us in the use from 12am to 6am on 
the morning of the Nov 18th. >>

You must be careful when making such a generalized statement, especially to 
members of the general public!  

    Should the Leonids indeed reach "storm levels" (ZHR >1000), it would 
likely be an outburst not lasting more than hour or two at most.  In the 
United States, those in the east are expecting the peak to come at around 5 
a.m. local time.  Thus, it's possible that up until around 3 or 4 a.m. 
nothing out of the ordinary will be seen.  

    An uninitiated observer in say, Pennsylvania, who briefly steps outside 
at 2:30 a.m. expecting to see meteors flicking across the sky every few 
seconds is likely to be disappointed and will head back to the confines of 
his nice, warm bed!  Out west, in the Pacific Time Zone, the peak should come 
around 2 a.m., so a person in, say, California, will likely begin to see some 
action by, or soon after 1 a.m. 

    While most of the people on this list are avid watchers of the skies, 
there will be countless numbers of other folks who are out that weekend 
specifically looking for the Leonids.  Many of these people are not going to 
have the stamina or patience to sit out for five or six hours on a cold 
November night!  We have evolved into a society that demands instant 
satisfaction, so it is important to highlight that period of time when 
something is likely to be seen so that at least people will come away feeling 
that they've seen something.  

    I still recall a couple of years ago, George Zay telling the story of 
people who were already camped-out near his observing site for 1999 Leonids 
waiting to see the bevy of meteors that was promised by the local media.  
Somebody else drove up and called out:  "Anybody see anything?"  To which the 
response from out of the darkness was:  "Nothing!  Not a goddamned thing!"  
If I recall correctly, this was right around local midnight, when Leo was 
rising.  A couple of hours later, Leo had risen to a good altitude and George 
finally started seeing a fair number of Leonids.  

Unfortunately, everybody else had already given up and had gone home!

-- joe rao 
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