The Leonids Meteor Shower in the past has been one of the most magnificent showers of the year. This year it seems it wasn’t as brilliant. I heard some great things from all the individuals who commented on this site about seeing gigantic meteors streak across the sky. My favorite remark I received came from Julian, where he said, “the moon did not want to share the stage tonight…” He not only personified the Moon but hit the nail on the head. It is surprising how much effect the Moon has on meteor shower viewing. But if you consider that meteors are usually the size of a grain of sand entering our atmosphere at speeds of 40,000 miles per hour or higher, it’s not so shocking.
I hope that the people that I sent out to view meteors in the bitter cold forgive me if they didn’t see a lot of activity or nothing at all. On a good note, I feel cheerful knowing that people all over the world could share a great experience together. More good news, the Leonids is not over this year and will be active until November 25 the bad news is that the peak activity has passed.
Even though November 2008 wasn’t the best performance for the Leonids Meteor Shower, meteor showers are always worth observing, at least for me.
If anyone would like to ask questions and give me ideas for more posts this month, comment here, I am always looking to teach.
Coming soon, some more meteor information, meteor fun facts and next months meteor schedule, bookmark the site and check back with me and…
Keep Your Head Up
- Meteor Mark
on Nov 18th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I watched the leonids on 11/17 from 12:30am – 2:30am (pst) and then again at the same time on 11/18. By far the 11/17 shower was better than 11/18, but I would have to agree this year was a “wash out” as compared to previous years.
I would like to know what the cloud like streaks that appear in the morning are after the showers? They seem to be remnants of the meteor events. Am I close? Thanks.
on Nov 18th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Celeste,
I haven’t ever heard of meteor showers leaving streaks in the sky a day after. You are probably seeing cirrus clouds that usually signify and upcoming change in weather, but let’s keep it all about meteors.
- Meteor Mark
on Nov 19th, 2008 at 12:10 am
I saw a sight that I almost don’t believe Monday morning at 5:50 pacific time. I live in the Monterey bay Area of California. I was leaving for work, and it was dark out. As I turned to close the patio door I was flashed by a light, then I saw a light about 2 1/2 ” wide by 2 ‘ long vertically on the wall. I thought someone had flashed me with a flashlight or a cars headlight had been flashed. I live at the end of a private country road with only 3 neighbors near. I turned around and looked, I didn’t see any humans. Then in the South West sky I saw a bright meteor tail that slowly faded away. It was the same shape as the light on the wall. It seemed that the meteor light was directed to where I was. I don’t think this is physically possible, but I know what I saw. Have you ever heard of this before? As I told this to my wife and kids, I started with ” I saw something that very few if anyone has seen before”
A reply to my email would be nice
thanks
Fred Babcock
on Nov 19th, 2008 at 1:14 am
Fred,
Correct me if I am wrong. You saw the shape of a meteor streak on your wall? I believe you saw it, somehow the light may have reflected on your wall. Think of when you see a reflection off of a compact disc from the sun on the wall, the light was from the sun but concentrated in a single area. The window may have acted in a simlar way. It seems that you saw a very unique situation that I have never heard anyone experiencing before.
Let me know if you find anything else out.
- Meteor Mark
on Nov 22nd, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Hi Meteor Mark…
This is an email I sent to the owner of the mom and pop restaurant where we were standing on the porch when we saw this on Thursday night Nov 20th ‘08… This place is way in the country… and from the porch we would have a limited range of seeing things… Where… How close… do you think it would have landed from us… Nearby…???
Now this morning I see on CNN-TV where the folks in Canada accidentally filmed Meteors on Thursday night… but I dont think we could have seen the same ones way down on the Mississippi Gulf Coast…
What can you tell me about what we saw…???
Regenia
“““““““““““““““““““`
Benjie…
would your next door neighbors to the west of you (same side of the road) have been firing any sort of fireworks last night…???
when Unc Paul and I were still standing on ya’ll’s porch… he saw it first and started hollering… shooting star… shooting star… I told him it was too close and too big… I was thinking fireworks…
Then he began to tell me about the wrench the astronauts lost in space… He said they were supposed to be tracking it… but we haven’t heard anything today… anyway… we began thinking what we saw was their wrench…
It looked like it would probably have landed behind the house of the folks across the road from your mom…
It was like nothing we had seen… It had a tail like a comet and that part was bright green… then the head end of it had a yellow halo and the center core was a bright/deep reddddddddd……..!!!!!!!!
on Nov 22nd, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Regenia,
The huge fireball was seen at 5:30 PM Calgary Time and was basically the same as seeing a billion watt light bulb in the sky. Could you have seen this fireball from more than 435 miles away? First we must find out if you were outside viewing at the time it fell.
I am not sure I am answering your question properly, but there are 4 meteor showers that were occurring Thursday night. It is unlikely you were seeing the exact same meteors as the people in Canada, but it is likely that you were seeing meteors from the same meteor shower.
Let me know if this is te answer to the question you asked.
- Meteor Mark
on Nov 22nd, 2008 at 6:47 pm
Mark… we didnt get to the restaurant till about 5:30 central time… min of an hour to eat so it would have been about 6:30 – 7:00 central time when we saw it… and it looked like it landed across the road… it was that close looking… It was going nearly straight down with a bit of a north to south in it’s direction…
it wasnt nearly as bright or as big as the one the police car cam corder caught in Canada… more like the one the fella saw on his video camera at the airport…
From Calgory to Mississippi Gulf Coast has to be way more than 435 miles… We had angels from Calgory come gutt our house after Katrina hit us…
so I kinda know where they live in relation to where we are…
Our meteor must have been a smaller cousin to the big Canadian one…
Regenia way down younder in Mississip
on Nov 22nd, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Regenia,
Possibly, still a once in a lifetime experience! I like the idea that it was a cousin! Let’s hope the father doesn’t show up anytime soon. The Canadian meteor was probably the size of a truck and weighed about the same and most was burned up from the heat.
Your fireball may have been as big as a basketball and that’s pretty large for a cousin!
Consider yourself lucky to have witnessed a beautiful celestial event.
Thanks for sharing.
- Meteor Mark
on Nov 22nd, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Mark…
It was pretty awesome and I know Uncle and I will never never forget it…
Is there any Bible scriptures about them…
We’re all just so glad it didnt land on the restaurant full of people… Might have been a calamity…
Would you have any idea how far away it might have landed…??? for it to seem so close…???
Thanks,
Regenia
on Nov 22nd, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Regenia,
We can surmise that if a meteor the size of a truck may have had a few small pieces scattered across the land (like the one in Canada) then an apple sized or basketball sized meteor like the one you saw disintegrated probably 30 to 60 miles high in the sky.
Scientists are rarely able to track meteoroids in space because of their size and immense speed (some travel at over 100,000 mph). Recently however a meteoroid was tracked and it was known that it was going to hit our atmosphere over the Sudan. There were very few witnesses and that one too burned up in the sky.
Thankfully the Earth and a “Supreme Entity” had the forethought to protect us from millions of particles that randomly enter our atmosphere on a daily basis.
Some you see, some you don’t and very few actually hit Earth.
Some say that Meteors played a part in the Star of David, the Leonids Meteor Shower is most commonly referred to as the the “Day the Sky Fell” because thousands of meteors an hour had be known to fall to Earth! Go to the upper right hand corner of the site and search for “Leonids” I did mention the Bible in one of the posts there. You can also search for “Car Sized Meteor” for more details on this.
- Keep your head up!
- Meteor Mark
on Nov 22nd, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Mark… guess we hafta keep our heads up…
Thanks for all your help in understanding a very rare occurance…
Regenia