On the map below, the shaded green area is where these meteors 'apparently' originate, but they are best
seen away from this area. Look at least 30*-60* away, beingining around 11pm, in constellations Orion, Taurus,
Casseopia, Canis Major, etc.
To distinguish from sporadic or Leonid meteors, 'draw' a line back along the meteors trail and see if it crossed
the radiant.If it did it's probably a Leonid. These meteors are some of the fastest of any display and the best
location to observe a meteor display is a DARK site away from city lights with a flat horizon. It takes a good
30-45 minutes for your eyes to become totally dark adapted. So leave the white flashlights at home or cover
them with a RED filter of some sort.
  The equipment to bring?  First dress warmly. My favorite setup is a bean bag chair,it really insulates you
against the cold, and forms well in any direction, a thick and warm comforter to throw over yourself. Binoculars
are not needed this time, yours eyes are the best astronomical device.  This is wide field observing! Something
warm to drink is always nice . Best viewing time the night of Nov. 17-18.  From the graphs I saw in S&T at
the meeting the other night, 2-4a.m. on the 18th is prime time with 3a.m. peak.
  From: IAAS Monthly Astronomy Newsletter November 2001 Meteor Showers
* The Leonids - The duration of this meteor shower covers the period of Nov. 14-20. Maximum currently
occurs on Nov. 17. The maximum hourly rate typically reaches 10-15, but most notable are periods of enhanced
activity that occur every 33 years - events that are directly associated with the periodic return of comet
Tempel-Tuttle. During these exceptional returns, the Leonids have produced rates of up to several thousand
meteors per hour. The Leonids are swift meteors, which are best known for leaving a high percentage of
persistent trains.

       Two diagrams that define the area that the Earth occupied in certain years when it passed through the Leonid stream.
      They do have different configurations??? They are off diagonally.

Photographing the Event:
  If you are going to photograph the event, use a 35mm SLR camera, with a 25mm-50mm
lens set at 1.4 - f2.8.  If unguided up to 5 minutes before you can see star streaks.
In a 4"x6" print the star streak would be about 1mm or less. Now if you blow the negative
up to 8"x10", the streaks would become  noticeable.  If you track the stars use ~10min to
30 min. If this is a storm the longer exposures will be very 'busy'.  So adjust accordingly.
Good constellations to aim at are Orion or Taurus, because they are so recognizable.

Leonid 2001 Space.com

Leonid 'Node' Graphic    thanks Andrea

LEONID FLUX ESTIMATOR

Good MeteorScience Articles                                                              HOME

                                         WAS
 LEONID METEOR SHOWER A STORM  (COULD BE ONE OF BEST IN HISTORY)
> San Francisco, Calif.  In the wee morning hours of Sunday, November 18,
> the Leonid meteor shower might intensify into a dazzling meteor storm,
> with "shooting stars" continuously blazing trails across the night sky.
> Viewers across the United States are perfectly positioned to take
> advantage of the storm, which could be among the most spectacular sky
> events of the 21st century according to the latest scientific predictions.
> The peak in shower activity will occur between 4:00 and 6:00 a.m. EST, or
> 1:00 and 3:00 a.m. PST on Sunday morning, November 18. "During the peak,
> people viewing under clear and dark skies could see meteors shooting
> across the sky at a rate of 1,000 to 2,000 per hour, with flurries of one
> meteor per second at the peak of the storm," says Robert Naeye, Editor of
> Mercury magazine, which is published in San Francisco by the Astronomical
> Society of the Pacific (ASP).
> During the predicted storm, Earth will plow through a trail of tiny dust
> particles left behind by Comet Tempel-Tuttle during its passage through
> the inner solar system in the year 1767. This comet rounds the Sun every
> 33.25 years, shedding dust particles as it is warmed by sunlight. Meteor
> showers occur when Earth passes through debris left behind by comets. But
> meteor storms occur when Earth passes through particularly dense ribbons
> of comet debris.
> "During a typical Leonid meteor shower, an experienced observer might see
> about 10 to 15 meteors per hour. But during a storm, that rate climbs to
> 1,000 or more meteors per hour," says Naeye. "This year's Leonid storm
> might peak at a rate of up to 2,000 per hour, although it's difficult to
> pin down a precise number. The rates will rise and fall over a period of
> two hours."
> "Of course, these numbers depend on the accuracy of our predictions. But
> the predictions have been remarkably accurate in recent years," says ASP
> member Dr. Peter Jenniskens, an astronomer and meteor researcher at the
> SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, and author of an in-depth
> article about meteor science in the November/December 2001 issue of
> Mercury magazine.
> This year's Leonid display has two added bonuses. The Moon will rise
> during daylight and set six hours before the peak, so the Moon's glare
> will not obscure fainter meteors. In addition, the peak will occur on a
> Sunday morning, so many people can sleep in after a long night of
> skygazing.
> If one mentally traces back the trajectory of Leonid meteors, they appear
> to originate in the constellation Leo (the Lion). Leo rises around
> midnight, so the shower will be minimal in the hours immediately after
> sunset. But it will pick up considerably as the night progresses.
> The entire United States should enjoy a good shower.  Peak meteor rates
> should occur around 5:00 a.m. EST, 4:00 a.m. CST, 3:00 a.m. MST, and 2:00
> a.m. PST.  Observers in eastern Asia and the Western Pacific will also
> enjoy a storm approximately 8 hours later (in the morning hours of
> November 19, local time), according to the forecasts. For the latest
> predictions for your local area, visit this website from NASA's Ames
> Research Center:
> http://www-space.arc.nasa.gov/~leonid/estimator.html.
> Earth will encounter another dense ribbon of Comet Tempel-Tuttle debris in
> 2002, but under a full Moon.  After that, it's over for nearly a century.
> "It's now or never," stresses Naeye. "People should take advantage of this
> year's Leonid storm, because astronomers don't think we'll see another
> storm like this one until the year 2099.  We will probably never see a
> better meteor shower in our lifetimes."
> When you see meteors, popularly known as "shooting stars," you're seeing
> interplanetary dust particles burning up in the atmosphere at altitudes of
> about 60 to 70 miles.  A typical comet dust particle-known as a
> meteoroid-is only about the size of a grain of sand or a pebble when it
> enters the atmosphere. Larger chunks of comet debris, perhaps up to the
> sizes of basketballs, sometimes light up the sky as they burn up, which
> are events called fireballs or bolides. Leonids enter the atmosphere at
> 160,000 miles per hour, making them the fastest meteors of the year.
> "Shooting stars are for every man, woman, and child to see, and it doesn't
> take any special equipment to see them," says Jane Houston Jones, a member
> of the ASP Board of Directors and an experienced meteor observer.  "Most
> Leonid meteors are faint, so you'll see more of them if you are far away
> from city light pollution. If you can't get to a dark site, then control
> your own light pollution by turning out as many lights as you can control.
> Then sit back in a lawn chair, bundle up in a blanket, and at a little
> before midnight local time, face east. You'll see the backwards
> question-mark shape of Leo's mane rising, and that's where the meteors
> will appear to radiate over the next few hours."
> Meteors are beautiful sky events for skygazers. But for scientists,
> meteors are fascinating in their own right.  "Meteor science involves more
> than just predicting storms. We also want to learn about the meteoroids
> themselves, which in turn tell us a great deal about the parent comet,"
> says Jenniskens. "We also want to learn more how meteors may have brought
> critical organic material to Earth, perhaps leading to the origin and
> prevalence of life on our planet."
> The November/December 2001 issue of Mercury contains a feature article by
> Dr. Jenniskens chock full of fascinating information about meteor science.
> Jane Houston Jones contributed a sidebar about how best to observe the
> Leonids. You can read these articles by visiting
> http://www.astrosociety.org/pubs/mercury/1101pr/leon ids.html. You can
> view Leonid images for possible publication or broadcast by visiting
> http://www.astrosociety.org/pubs/mercury/1101pr/leon idimages.html (this
> site is for the news media only).
> The non-profit Astronomical Society of the Pacific was founded in 1889 in
> San Francisco, and is still headquartered there today. The ASP has since
> grown into an international society. Its membership is spread over all 50
> states and 70 countries and includes professional and amateur astronomers,
> science educators of all levels, and people in the general public. The ASP
> publishes the bimonthly Mercury magazine (now published in full color) for
> its members. It publishes a technical journal for professional
> astronomers, and it coordinates Project ASTRO, a national astronomy
> education program. The Society also produces a catalog of extensive
> astronomy-related products for educators and the public.

                          That's it for the 2001 display, it was incredible!!!

And as we stand on the edge of darkness
Let our chant fill the void
That others may know

        In the land of the night
        The ship of the sun
        Is drawn by
        The grateful dead.
                -- Tibetan "Book of the Dead," ca. 4000 BC.