Star Gazing...

[billybob884]

I was wondering if anyone knows of a website that will know about things like comet sightings, when planets are viewable, meteor showers, ect. for a certain area.

[selden]

Mike,

You really need to learn how to use Google And NASA's Web sites.

You're just in time with your question, too:
http://www.SpaceWeather.com/ shows that the Leonids are going to be active early Tuesday morning.
NASA's http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/09oct_leonidsforecast.htm
shows them to be peaking at 2am local in California, 5am local in NY. There'll be an earlier peak around 5AM local time in Europe: there actually are two meteor clouds we'll be passing through,

So far as planetary observing is concerned, you might want to pick up a current issue of Sky and Telescope. They include a pull-out in the center that shows where the planets are. But http://www.fourmilab.ch/yoursky/ can do it, too.

[marc]

Im off to watch the eclipse in Ceduna, South Australia on the 4 dec. Its going to be a 3200km road trip which will be half the fun.
Ive already seen this using celestia, it seems to occur at sunset.

I remember looking at Halleys comet through a pair of binoculars when I was about 9 years old. It looked like a fuzzy smudged star. I was lucky to grow up in the country where you can actually see the stars, not like here in the city. Dad and I used to borrow the schools 16inch reflector whenever we could, you could see the spot and moons of jupiter with it (just).

I went chasing the leonids shower a few years ago (november I think). We were driving around like madmen looking for a gap in the clouds and an open paddock. I saw one dirty great meteor that lit up the area and you could actually hear it. The 'shower' never happened though.

If you want to see some metoers just stare at the sky for a while and your bound to see a few. Half an hour should get you one. Far from the city is best of course. Dont mistake them for sattelites though. At home on a clear night the sighting of sattelites and meteors are at about a 10:1 ratio, thats my very rough guess.

As for finding out what is visible and when, your best bet is to get hold of one of the many planetarium programs. My old man still uses an old dos one. You just put in your co-ordinates and away you go. You can use celestia for this but its hard to position yourself in the right spot.

[Darkmiss]

My sky view is extremely limited around here in London, England.

Tall buildings and tons of light polution, make it very difficult.

[billybob884]

Im off to watch the eclipse in Ceduna, South Australia on the 4 dec. Its going to be a 3200km road trip which will be half the fun.
Ive already seen this using celestia, it seems to occur at sunset.

I remember looking at Halleys comet through a pair of binoculars when I was about 9 years old. It looked like a fuzzy smudged star. I was lucky to grow up in the country where you can actually see the stars, not like here in the city. Dad and I used to borrow the schools 16inch reflector whenever we could, you could see the spot and moons of jupiter with it (just).

I went chasing the leonids shower a few years ago (november I think). We were driving around like madmen looking for a gap in the clouds and an open paddock. I saw one dirty great meteor that lit up the area and you could actually hear it. The 'shower' never happened though.

If you want to see some metoers just stare at the sky for a while and your bound to see a few. Half an hour should get you one. Far from the city is best of course. Dont mistake them for sattelites though. At home on a clear night the sighting of sattelites and meteors are at about a 10:1 ratio, thats my very rough guess.

As for finding out what is visible and when, your best bet is to get hold of one of the many planetarium programs. My old man still uses an old dos one. You just put in your co-ordinates and away you go. You can use celestia for this but its hard to position yourself in the right spot.

WOW this sounds great! i live on the east coast in the us. its no picnic here either as far as light pollution. half the time its really cloudy here too. but that sounds like its really fun. im still relatively a kid (mid teens to be exact), and my dad has never had any real interest in space. hope you have fun!! and thanks to selden for the websites; i would have looked myself, but i usually have really bad luck online.

[marc]

I forgot, the best viewing is when the moon is not up. The further from any town the better. It will take up to 30min for your eyes to adjust to the low light. On a warm night blankets, wine and a girl go well too.

[billybob884]

i would like to know, in the meteor shower tomorrow, when will it be in EST? i read on one of the websites selden provided that it will occur at around 5:30 AM EST, but my mother says she heard 4:00 AM on the news this morning. anyone know for sure?

[selden]

Mike,

You need to look at the graph at http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/images/leonidsforecast/NewYork.gif

Remember that what's happening is that the earth will be entering a cloud of comet material that's rather diffuse around the edges. It's hard to predict or define when things will actually start happening.

The graph includes three different predictions which make different assumptions about the density distribution, the size of the cloud and other variables, none of which can be known all that accurately.

To summarize, some meteors might start to be visible around 3am. It looks like the peak of the shower will actually happen after dawn

[selden]

And you should start watching just as Leo is rising, around 11-11:30 Monday night. That's when earth-grazing meteors would happen, which can be quite spectacular.

[billybob884]

well, if i see anything from here, i'll try and get some pictures. wish me luck!

[Michael]

11-11:30 Mon. night nothing happening. Tues. AM saw about 40-50 meteors but high clouds and bright Moon made observing not too exciting
(also VERY cold!) For meteor showers, just listen to your local TV meteorologist and go outside at the indicated time and look up! You can't miss them!

[Sum0]

I try to go out a few times a week, but it's usually cold and wet and cloudy. No sign of the Leonids above my house thanks to our friend nimbus... the last meteor shower I had good weather for were the Perseids.