Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. Those tribes of a few hundred years ago kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred.
There were some variations in the Moon names, but in general the same ones were current throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England on west to Lake Superior. European settlers followed their own customs and created some of their own names. Since the lunar (“synodic”) month is roughly 29.5 days in length on average, the dates of the full Moon shift from year to year.
Here is a listing of all the full Moon names, as well as the dates and times for 2007. Unless otherwise noted, all times are for the Eastern Time Zone.
Jan. 3, 8:57 a.m. EST – The Full Wolf Moon. Amid the zero cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. It was also known as the Old Moon or the “Moon After Yule.” In some tribes this was the Full Snow Moon; most applied that name to the next Moon.
Feb. 2, 12:45 a.m. EST – The Full Snow Moon. Usually the heaviest snows fall in this month. Hunting becomes very difficult, and hence to some tribes this was the Full Hunger Moon.
March 3, 6:17 p.m. EST – The Full Worm Moon. In this month the ground softens and the earthworm casts reappear, inviting the return of the robins. The more northern tribes knew this as the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signals the end of winter, or the Full Crust Moon because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night. The Full Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, is another variation. A total lunar eclipse will take place on this night; the Moon will appear to rise will totally immersed (or nearly so) in the Earth’s shadow over the eastern United States. The rising Moon will be emerging from the shadow over the central United States, while over the Western U.S. the eclipse will be all but over by the time the Moon rises.
April 2, 1:15 p.m. EDT – The Full Pink Moon. The grass pink or wild ground phlox is one of the earliest widespread flowers of the spring. Other names were the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and -- among coastal tribes -- the Full Fish Moon, when the shad came upstream to spawn. This is also the Paschal Full Moon; the first full Moon of the spring season. The first Sunday following the Paschal Moon is Easter Sunday, which indeed will be observed six days later on Sunday, April 8.
May 2, 6:09 a.m. EDT – The Full Flower Moon. Flowers are abundant everywhere. It was also known as the Full Corn Planting Moon or the Milk Moon.
May 31, 9:04 p.m. EDT – The Blue Moon. The second full Moon occurring within a calendar month is usually bestowed this title.
Although the name suggests that to have two Full Moons in a single month is a rather rare occurrence (happening “just once in a . . . “), it actually occurs once about every three years on average.
June 30, 9:49 a.m. EDT – The Full Strawberry Moon. Known to every Algonquin tribe. Europeans called it the Rose Moon.
July 29, 8:48 p.m. EDT – The Full Buck Moon, when the new antlers of buck deer push out from their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, thunderstorms being now most frequent. Sometimes also called the Full Hay Moon.
Aug. 28, 6:35 a.m. EDT – The Full Sturgeon Moon, when this large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water like Lake Champlain is most readily caught. A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because the moon rises looking reddish through sultry haze, or the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon. A total lunar eclipse will coincide with moonset for the eastern United States. The Central and Mountain Time Zones will see the Moon’s emergence coincide with moonset, while the western United States will see the entire eclipse.
Sept. 26, 3:45 p.m. EDT – The Full Harvest Moon. Always the full Moon occurring nearest to the Autumnal Equinox. Corn, pumpkins, squash, beans, and wild rice— the chief Indian staples—are now ready for gathering.
Oct. 26, 12:52 a.m. EDT – The Full Hunter’s Moon. With the leaves falling and the deer fattened, it is time to hunt. Since the fields have been reaped, hunters can ride over the stubble, and can more easily see the fox, also other animals that have come out to glean and can be caught for a thanksgiving banquet after the harvest. The Moon will also be at perigee later this day, at 7:00 a.m., at a distance of 221,676 miles from Earth. Very high tides can be expected from the coincidence of perigee with full Moon.
Nov. 24, 9:30 a.m. EST – The Full Beaver Moon. Time to set beaver traps before the swamps freeze to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Beaver Full Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now active in their preparation for winter. Also called the Frosty Moon.
Dec. 23, 2:51 a.m. EST – The Full Cold Moon; among some tribes, the Full Long Nights Moon. In this month the winter cold fastens its grip, and the nights are at their longest and darkest. Also sometimes called the “Moon before Yule” (Yule is Christmas, and this time the Moon is only just before it). The term Long Night Moon is a doubly appropriate name because the midwinter night is indeed long and the Moon is above the horizon a long time. The midwinter full Moon takes a high trajectory across the sky because it is opposite to the low Sun.
- By Joe Rao
Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Friday, December 15, 2006
For Those Who Missed the Show
Hi All,
This is the Photograph of Geminid Meteor by Sagar Godambe taken from Vangani on the night of 13-14th December.
You can see faint vertical steak of meteor on right side of bright star in the field. Due to heavy light pollution sky is fogged and meteor appears faint steak.
You might think what’s great in posting photo of faint steak which is barely visible, and then just try to figure out efforts required for capturing one.
1. Spending Nights out on Odd Days and traveling to out station to get as much as possible clear sky.
2. Meteor falling rate is very low around 1 meteor per 5 mins.
3. Out of 360 of Sky camera can capture only 50 degrees at times.
4. Though during Meteor Shower radiant of meteor is from particular point in sky but meteor may fall any where in whole sky. So targeting sky for photo and getting meteor in frame is all left to your luck.
5. And most important is "YOUR PATIENCE and PERSISTANCE and NEVER QUITE ATTITUDE" even after many repeated failures in Capturing Meteors on Frame.
HATS OF TO SAGAR..
Monday, December 11, 2006
Our Milky Way on Desktop
One of the best photo of milkyway.
Looks really nice as Wallpaper..
Click on Image to open Fullsize Image..Tuesday, December 5, 2006
Catch IIS if you can...
Hi All,
Everyone who study / interested in Sky knows about ISS ( International Space Station ).
Lets try to catch it visually..
Following are the details of visibility of ISS.
Date: Monday, 11 December, 2006
Observer's Location: Mumbai ( 18.9670°N, 72.8330°E)
It will be visible from morning 6:03 am t0 6:09 am **- very small period of time indeed....
At magnitude -1.0 - it will start apearing from North of Auriga and move above Gemini then passing through Leo almost kissing Saturn and then will set in Centaurus...
(All those who know sky-watching they will understand what do i mean by Auriga, Gemini, Leo & Centaurus; other please forgive me this time..)
Following is the Map of Path IIS will cover...
Please try to catch it and Let me know if you can...
If you can catch it through telescope then you may be able to see it's Solar Panels..
**I will post Updated Timings and map on 9 or 10th Dec, as predictions become more accurate for near actual date...
Best of Luck
Sameer Thakur
Everyone who study / interested in Sky knows about ISS ( International Space Station ).
Lets try to catch it visually..
Following are the details of visibility of ISS.
Date: Monday, 11 December, 2006
Observer's Location: Mumbai ( 18.9670°N, 72.8330°E)
It will be visible from morning 6:03 am t0 6:09 am **- very small period of time indeed....
At magnitude -1.0 - it will start apearing from North of Auriga and move above Gemini then passing through Leo almost kissing Saturn and then will set in Centaurus...
(All those who know sky-watching they will understand what do i mean by Auriga, Gemini, Leo & Centaurus; other please forgive me this time..)
Following is the Map of Path IIS will cover...
Please try to catch it and Let me know if you can...
If you can catch it through telescope then you may be able to see it's Solar Panels..
**I will post Updated Timings and map on 9 or 10th Dec, as predictions become more accurate for near actual date...
Best of Luck
Sameer Thakur
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Monday, November 27, 2006
Geminid Images
:: Geminid Meteor::
:: Geminid Radient::
:: Geminid Origin : Orbit of Astroid 3200 Phaethon::
Geminid Meteor - The Most Relieble Shower of the year
Less than a month after the Leonid meteor shower, another excellent display is just around the corner. The reliable, annual Geminid meteor shower is scheduled to reach its peak on Dec. 13-14.
The Geminids are named for the constellation of Gemini, the Twins. On Dec. 13-14, the night of this showers maximum activity, the meteors appear to emanate from a spot in the sky near the bright star Castor in Gemini as Earth barrels through a stream of space debris laid down centuries ago.
The Geminid display is usually the most satisfying of all the annual showers, even surpassing the more widely recognized Perseids of August. Studies show that the Geminids are rich in slow, bright, graceful meteors and bright fireballs, as well as faint meteors, with relatively fewer objects of medium brightness. Many Geminids appear yellowish in hue. Some even seem to form jagged or divided paths.
According to meteor specialist Neil Bone, at 2 grams per cubic centimeter on average, Geminid meteoroids are several times denser than the cometary dust flakes that supply most meteor showers, so they burn up less quickly. Add this to the relatively slow speed with which Geminids typically encounter Earth 22 miles per second (35 kilometers per second), or roughly half the speed of a Leonid meteor and you have the recipe for meteors that linger a bit longer in view than most.
The Earth moves quickly through this meteor stream producing a somewhat broad, lopsided activity profile. Rates increase steadily for two or three days before maximum, reaching roughly above a quarter of its peak strength, then drop off more sharply afterward. Late Geminids, however, tend to be especially bright.
::Peak Activity::
Peak activity is projected to fortuitously occur at or near 10:45 UT on Dec. 14. Under normal conditions on the night of maximum activity, with ideal dark-sky conditions, at least 60 to 120 Geminid meteors can be expected to burst across the sky every hour on the average.
::Best viewing windows::
The entire night of December 13/14. The Geminids perform excellently in any year, so observers can rely on a fine display. There will be some moonlight to combat, but it will not spoil the event as it can be easily avoided. And although Peak Time is daylight time for us, but Geminid slowly reaches peak so we can expect ZHR as good as peak even before actual peak.
And that’s not all why Geminid Meteors are interesting, Geminids stand apart from the other meteor showers in that they seem to have been originated not from a comet, but from 3200 Phaeton, an asteroid that crosses the path of Earths orbit.
::Origin Of Geminid::
The appearance of this meteor shower seems to have been fairly sudden during the 1860s. It was first noted in 1862, when R. P. Greg (Manchester, England) found a radiant in the constellation Gemini for the period of December 10-12. B. V. Marsh and A. C. Twining (United States) independently discovered the activity around the same time. A. S. Herschel noted meteors emanating from Gemini during December 12/13, 1863, as well as three fireballs from near the same radiant in 1863 and 1864. During the 1870s, observations of the Geminids became more numerous as astronomers realized a new annual shower was active.
The first estimate of the strength of the Geminids came in 1877, when the hourly rate was given as about 14. The same rate was also given by observers in England during 1892, but it was noted that almost twice as many bright meteors were present than had been seen in 1877. In 1896, English observers gave hourly rates near 23 and also observed "a number of bright pale green meteors...."
The reported rates continued to increase through most of the 20th century. During the 1900s, the rates averaged about 20 per hour. The rates averaged near 50 per hour during the 1930s, 60 per hour during the 1940s and 1950s, 65 per hour during the 1960s, and 80 per hour during the 1970s. The rates stayed near 80 per hour during the remainder of that century.
Visual observations have shown this shower to exhibit a very sharp peak of activity, with hourly rates remaining above a value of half the maximum for about two days. Although visual evidence of this shower indicates activity persists from December 6 to 19, photography and radar studies have revealed apparent activity spanning the period of November 30 to December 29.
Papers studying the sizes of the Geminid meteors were published by G. H. Spalding in 1982 and P. B. Babadzhanov and Yu. V. Obrubov in 1984. Both revealed that the meteoroids within the stream were separated by size, so that particle size generally increases during the duration of the stream. Such an occurrence usually indicates the stream is very old.
A major advance in the understanding of this meteor stream was made in 1947. F. L. Whipple had been involved in the Harvard Meteor Project, a photographic survey aimed at better understanding meteors and their origins by obtaining data that could be used to calculate orbital elements. While analyzing meteors associated with the Geminids he found an orbital period of only 1.65 years, as well as a high eccentricity and a low inclination. Such an orbit attracted the attention of M. Plavec (Prague), who began investigating how the gravity of the planets changed the orbit.
Plavec found that only two planets affect the orbit of the Geminids---Earth and Jupiter, though the former was considered negligible compared to the effects of the giant planet. "From the observer's point of view," he wrote, "the most important phenomenon is the rapid backward shift of the [date of maximum]." The degree of this shift was calculated to cause the date of maximum to occur one day earlier every 60 years. Another interesting conclusion involved the point of intersection between the stream's orbit and the plane of Earth's orbit. For the year 1700, it was found that the intersection point was placed 0.1337 AU inside Earth's orbit. For 1900, the intersection point was located 0.0178 AU inside Earth's orbit and in 2100, the point would be 0.1066 AU outside of Earth's orbit. Thus, Plavec not only showed why the activity of the Geminids was steadily increasing, but he also demonstrated that the activity would eventually decline and that sometime in the future Earth would no longer contact the stream's orbit.
Plavec's work was essentially confirmed in 1982 by K. Fox, I. P. Williams, and D. W. Hughes; however, the observations did not reflect the predicted change in the date of maximum that amounted to one day in about 60 years. The authors theorized that the predicted change was actually being altered because of "the shape of the cross-section of the intersection of the meteor stream with the ecliptic plane." A computer simulation predicted the meteor rate profile was skew. Fox, Williams, and Hughes further elaborated on this distribution in a paper published in 1983. "At the present time the Geminid shower slowly builds up to maximum rate and then drops away from maximum relatively sharply. About 50 yr ago the skewness should have been exactly the opposite with a sharp build up to maximum rate and a much slower falling away." The proposed model indicated Earth's orbit would intersect the Geminid stream only between 1800 and 2100.
A major question concerning the Geminid stream involves its origin. It was long known that no parent comet for this stream was present in current catalogs, but, since the exact size and shape of the stream were not known until 1947, few conjectures were made. In 1950, Plavec theorized about the Geminid stream's parent body and pointed out that the "existence of a parent comet in such a short-period orbit, even in the past, seems to be not very probable. Planetary perturbations could scarcely have reduced the semimajor axis so much. More probably, the Geminids were separated from a parabolic comet by the close approach of the comet to the sun." Concerning a possible candidate for the parabolic comet mentioned, Plavec considered the great comet of 1680 (after a suggestion made in 1931 by Maltzev) and concluded that the close approach of the two orbits at a point slightly beyond the Geminid perihelion point, made a possible connection impossible to exclude.
L. Kresak strengthened the comet link to this meteor stream's formation, but instead of offering a theory as exotic as Plavec's, he favored a more direct formation of the Geminids. In 1972, he wrote that the parent comet "must have previously occupied the present orbit." He stressed that the compact nature of the stream would eliminate the possibility of it having formed in a different orbit and then been perturbed into the present orbit. Eleven years later, Kresak's theory would gain considerable strength.
On October 11, 1983, during a search for moving objects amidst the data gathered by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), S. Green and J. K. Davies found a rapidly moving asteroid in Draco. The next evening, C. Kowal (Palomar Observatory, California, USA) confirmed the body by photographing it with the 48-inch Schmidt telescope. The asteroid received the preliminary designation 1983 TB. As early orbital calculations were being made, the International Astronomical Union Circular for October 25, 1983, relayed the opinion of Whipple that this asteroid moved in an orbit almost identical to that of the Geminid meteor stream. Additional observations confirmed the link and the asteroid eventually received the permanent designation of 3200 Phaethon. The excitement of having found the parent body of the Geminid stream was almost dwarfed by another realization, this was the first time an asteroid had been definitely linked to a meteor shower and it subsequently serves as an important link between comets and meteor streams.
::Post Replys::
Watch this shower and post your replys, If you have any queries, post comments or mail me.
The Geminids are named for the constellation of Gemini, the Twins. On Dec. 13-14, the night of this showers maximum activity, the meteors appear to emanate from a spot in the sky near the bright star Castor in Gemini as Earth barrels through a stream of space debris laid down centuries ago.
The Geminid display is usually the most satisfying of all the annual showers, even surpassing the more widely recognized Perseids of August. Studies show that the Geminids are rich in slow, bright, graceful meteors and bright fireballs, as well as faint meteors, with relatively fewer objects of medium brightness. Many Geminids appear yellowish in hue. Some even seem to form jagged or divided paths.
According to meteor specialist Neil Bone, at 2 grams per cubic centimeter on average, Geminid meteoroids are several times denser than the cometary dust flakes that supply most meteor showers, so they burn up less quickly. Add this to the relatively slow speed with which Geminids typically encounter Earth 22 miles per second (35 kilometers per second), or roughly half the speed of a Leonid meteor and you have the recipe for meteors that linger a bit longer in view than most.
The Earth moves quickly through this meteor stream producing a somewhat broad, lopsided activity profile. Rates increase steadily for two or three days before maximum, reaching roughly above a quarter of its peak strength, then drop off more sharply afterward. Late Geminids, however, tend to be especially bright.
::Peak Activity::
Peak activity is projected to fortuitously occur at or near 10:45 UT on Dec. 14. Under normal conditions on the night of maximum activity, with ideal dark-sky conditions, at least 60 to 120 Geminid meteors can be expected to burst across the sky every hour on the average.
::Best viewing windows::
The entire night of December 13/14. The Geminids perform excellently in any year, so observers can rely on a fine display. There will be some moonlight to combat, but it will not spoil the event as it can be easily avoided. And although Peak Time is daylight time for us, but Geminid slowly reaches peak so we can expect ZHR as good as peak even before actual peak.
And that’s not all why Geminid Meteors are interesting, Geminids stand apart from the other meteor showers in that they seem to have been originated not from a comet, but from 3200 Phaeton, an asteroid that crosses the path of Earths orbit.
::Origin Of Geminid::
The appearance of this meteor shower seems to have been fairly sudden during the 1860s. It was first noted in 1862, when R. P. Greg (Manchester, England) found a radiant in the constellation Gemini for the period of December 10-12. B. V. Marsh and A. C. Twining (United States) independently discovered the activity around the same time. A. S. Herschel noted meteors emanating from Gemini during December 12/13, 1863, as well as three fireballs from near the same radiant in 1863 and 1864. During the 1870s, observations of the Geminids became more numerous as astronomers realized a new annual shower was active.
The first estimate of the strength of the Geminids came in 1877, when the hourly rate was given as about 14. The same rate was also given by observers in England during 1892, but it was noted that almost twice as many bright meteors were present than had been seen in 1877. In 1896, English observers gave hourly rates near 23 and also observed "a number of bright pale green meteors...."
The reported rates continued to increase through most of the 20th century. During the 1900s, the rates averaged about 20 per hour. The rates averaged near 50 per hour during the 1930s, 60 per hour during the 1940s and 1950s, 65 per hour during the 1960s, and 80 per hour during the 1970s. The rates stayed near 80 per hour during the remainder of that century.
Visual observations have shown this shower to exhibit a very sharp peak of activity, with hourly rates remaining above a value of half the maximum for about two days. Although visual evidence of this shower indicates activity persists from December 6 to 19, photography and radar studies have revealed apparent activity spanning the period of November 30 to December 29.
Papers studying the sizes of the Geminid meteors were published by G. H. Spalding in 1982 and P. B. Babadzhanov and Yu. V. Obrubov in 1984. Both revealed that the meteoroids within the stream were separated by size, so that particle size generally increases during the duration of the stream. Such an occurrence usually indicates the stream is very old.
A major advance in the understanding of this meteor stream was made in 1947. F. L. Whipple had been involved in the Harvard Meteor Project, a photographic survey aimed at better understanding meteors and their origins by obtaining data that could be used to calculate orbital elements. While analyzing meteors associated with the Geminids he found an orbital period of only 1.65 years, as well as a high eccentricity and a low inclination. Such an orbit attracted the attention of M. Plavec (Prague), who began investigating how the gravity of the planets changed the orbit.
Plavec found that only two planets affect the orbit of the Geminids---Earth and Jupiter, though the former was considered negligible compared to the effects of the giant planet. "From the observer's point of view," he wrote, "the most important phenomenon is the rapid backward shift of the [date of maximum]." The degree of this shift was calculated to cause the date of maximum to occur one day earlier every 60 years. Another interesting conclusion involved the point of intersection between the stream's orbit and the plane of Earth's orbit. For the year 1700, it was found that the intersection point was placed 0.1337 AU inside Earth's orbit. For 1900, the intersection point was located 0.0178 AU inside Earth's orbit and in 2100, the point would be 0.1066 AU outside of Earth's orbit. Thus, Plavec not only showed why the activity of the Geminids was steadily increasing, but he also demonstrated that the activity would eventually decline and that sometime in the future Earth would no longer contact the stream's orbit.
Plavec's work was essentially confirmed in 1982 by K. Fox, I. P. Williams, and D. W. Hughes; however, the observations did not reflect the predicted change in the date of maximum that amounted to one day in about 60 years. The authors theorized that the predicted change was actually being altered because of "the shape of the cross-section of the intersection of the meteor stream with the ecliptic plane." A computer simulation predicted the meteor rate profile was skew. Fox, Williams, and Hughes further elaborated on this distribution in a paper published in 1983. "At the present time the Geminid shower slowly builds up to maximum rate and then drops away from maximum relatively sharply. About 50 yr ago the skewness should have been exactly the opposite with a sharp build up to maximum rate and a much slower falling away." The proposed model indicated Earth's orbit would intersect the Geminid stream only between 1800 and 2100.
A major question concerning the Geminid stream involves its origin. It was long known that no parent comet for this stream was present in current catalogs, but, since the exact size and shape of the stream were not known until 1947, few conjectures were made. In 1950, Plavec theorized about the Geminid stream's parent body and pointed out that the "existence of a parent comet in such a short-period orbit, even in the past, seems to be not very probable. Planetary perturbations could scarcely have reduced the semimajor axis so much. More probably, the Geminids were separated from a parabolic comet by the close approach of the comet to the sun." Concerning a possible candidate for the parabolic comet mentioned, Plavec considered the great comet of 1680 (after a suggestion made in 1931 by Maltzev) and concluded that the close approach of the two orbits at a point slightly beyond the Geminid perihelion point, made a possible connection impossible to exclude.
L. Kresak strengthened the comet link to this meteor stream's formation, but instead of offering a theory as exotic as Plavec's, he favored a more direct formation of the Geminids. In 1972, he wrote that the parent comet "must have previously occupied the present orbit." He stressed that the compact nature of the stream would eliminate the possibility of it having formed in a different orbit and then been perturbed into the present orbit. Eleven years later, Kresak's theory would gain considerable strength.
On October 11, 1983, during a search for moving objects amidst the data gathered by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), S. Green and J. K. Davies found a rapidly moving asteroid in Draco. The next evening, C. Kowal (Palomar Observatory, California, USA) confirmed the body by photographing it with the 48-inch Schmidt telescope. The asteroid received the preliminary designation 1983 TB. As early orbital calculations were being made, the International Astronomical Union Circular for October 25, 1983, relayed the opinion of Whipple that this asteroid moved in an orbit almost identical to that of the Geminid meteor stream. Additional observations confirmed the link and the asteroid eventually received the permanent designation of 3200 Phaethon. The excitement of having found the parent body of the Geminid stream was almost dwarfed by another realization, this was the first time an asteroid had been definitely linked to a meteor shower and it subsequently serves as an important link between comets and meteor streams.
::Post Replys::
Watch this shower and post your replys, If you have any queries, post comments or mail me.
Friday, November 17, 2006
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Get Ready For Leonid
The Leonids are composed of the dusty debris that has been shed by the comet Temple-Tuttle, a small celestial body that orbits the Sun at 33-year intervals. In those years during and then for several years after the comet has swept through the inner solar system, it has had a propensity for producing spectacular meteor displays; meteors falling by the hundreds, if not thousands per hour. These "shooting stars" all apparently emanate from the constellation of Leo, the Lion. Hence the name "Leonids."
The comet last passed the Sun and Earth in 1998, and from that year through 2002, the Leonids produced showers in which meteors fell at rates of more than a thousand per hour—displays that astronomers call meteor storms.
Since 2003, however, with Temple-Tuttle having receded back into the far reaches of the solar system, the Leonids have been disappointing, barely producing more than 10 meteors per hour.
It appeared that the chances of any more spectacular Leonid displays were over for many years to come. But that might not be case, if the calculations of several reputable meteor scientists prove to be correct.
Prediction for 2006
Apparently, a rather narrow but dense ribbon of dust was shed by comet Temple-Tuttle when it passed the Sun in 1932. When the Earth interacted with that dusty trail back in 1969, it produced a brief bevy of some 200 to 300 meteors in less than hour.
In 2006, Earth will be nearly twice as far away from the comet as opposed to 1969, but expectations are that as many as 100 to 150 Leonids may streak across the sky in only an hour's time as we interact with that decades-old ribbon of debris again.The 2006 Leonids will show a dust trail encounter with the "1932-dust trail" of comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, as well as the possible return of the "Filament component".
The calculated peak time of the outburst is 04:45 UT (Dust Trail encounter). It will probably not last very long (i.e. meteor activity will rise and fall quite sharply).
Peak time of the Filament component is uncertain.
The "traditional maximum" of the annual Leonid shower is earlier on November 17, around 16:45 UT, well placed for the western USA (early morning of November 18 local time).
Hope we get clear Sky on Sunday Morning. Get Ready for Vangani Program guys...
The comet last passed the Sun and Earth in 1998, and from that year through 2002, the Leonids produced showers in which meteors fell at rates of more than a thousand per hour—displays that astronomers call meteor storms.
Since 2003, however, with Temple-Tuttle having receded back into the far reaches of the solar system, the Leonids have been disappointing, barely producing more than 10 meteors per hour.
It appeared that the chances of any more spectacular Leonid displays were over for many years to come. But that might not be case, if the calculations of several reputable meteor scientists prove to be correct.
Prediction for 2006
Apparently, a rather narrow but dense ribbon of dust was shed by comet Temple-Tuttle when it passed the Sun in 1932. When the Earth interacted with that dusty trail back in 1969, it produced a brief bevy of some 200 to 300 meteors in less than hour.
In 2006, Earth will be nearly twice as far away from the comet as opposed to 1969, but expectations are that as many as 100 to 150 Leonids may streak across the sky in only an hour's time as we interact with that decades-old ribbon of debris again.The 2006 Leonids will show a dust trail encounter with the "1932-dust trail" of comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, as well as the possible return of the "Filament component".
The calculated peak time of the outburst is 04:45 UT (Dust Trail encounter). It will probably not last very long (i.e. meteor activity will rise and fall quite sharply).
Peak time of the Filament component is uncertain.
The "traditional maximum" of the annual Leonid shower is earlier on November 17, around 16:45 UT, well placed for the western USA (early morning of November 18 local time).
Hope we get clear Sky on Sunday Morning. Get Ready for Vangani Program guys...
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