You gotta be kidding me!!!! Here is my observation report from Monday night.... ------------------------------ *I made the comment myself last night.... "Orion lets us know when it's time to Ski"....everyone laughed!* * The girlfriend, some friends, and I were out observing the Leonids in the relatively Dark Skies of Western Mass. A little area known as Arunah Hill. I was in high school when I started observing from this clearing that sits atop a 300 feet hill with a beautiful south-easterly aspect. Perfect for everything really...especially meteor showers. I have seen an increase in light pollution over the last 12 years, still,the observing is usually pretty good. * * Last year wasn't the greatest year for the Leonids. Mostly because we were waiting for the moon to set. This year was a different story. Unfortunately, this years show lacked spectacular fire-balls, break-ups, or near misses....just lots and lots of activity.* * We traveled the hour from Springfield, MA and made camp by 10. Ate dinner and caught a few hours of sleep. We awoke about 2AM....tempted to stay in the warm tent, we eventually transitioned our bed-rolls to their "Under the Stars" Configuration! * * No one will believe this, but as soon as I poked my head out the tent I saw two massive streaks, one in the east and one in the west. That was super exciting for sure.* * We observed from 230 to 530. There were too many meteors to count! It was a great year for the Leonids. I've seen better displays in the past, but this was pretty damn good! At one point I saw five in just 30 seconds!* * Moral of the story...if you have frost on your bivy when your done observing a Meteor Shower....it's time to ski, Damnit! And if you forget, Orion will remind you!* On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 8:10 AM, Dave Bennett <dlbennett@mac.com> wrote: Sadly I slept right through it: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=8714738
Make sure and read the descriptive comments. Drat!
Dave
On Nov 18, 2009, at 12:31 AM, Patrick Wiggins wrote:
A few minutes ago at 00:07:45 =/- a few seconds there was a huge flash in
the sky. Five minutes later, almost to the second, there was a low rumbling sound. That puts the explosion about 300 km away.
I just spoke to Joe Bauman who is at the Wedge. He said he was facing away from it and it was so bright he thought a car was driving up with headlights on. He saw many pieces falling but heard no sound over the clatter of his generator.
Wow!
patrick