Dedicated to Mara's travel and hiking adventure journals as well as her words of wisdom and suggested resources for hikers and travelers.
|
Leonids 2001Woohoo!!! 6:00AM: Just got in from a great viewing of the Leonids. Woke up at 3:30 and couldn't fall back to sleep. How convenient. So, took a look from my back porch - noted the light pollution, took one look up, noted TWO meteors streaking across the sky, and decided to hop in my car. I live 5 miles north of Boston. As I was getting on the highway, just blocks from my house, I saw another meteor and a fireball. COOL! Started driving north but decided I was a menace on the roads... There were too many meteors distracting me as I drove. I ended up just getting as far as a large pond in Wakefield just off route 129 (about 10 miles north of Boston). There were certainly still a bunch of lights distracting from the experience but there was a large expanse of sky available. Joined the large number of oohing and aahing blobs of people lying about on the ground under blankets and sleeping bags. Figured out where Leo must be within the first minute or two (based on where the meteors seemed to emanate) and started counting. I didn't get far. Too many meteors. I think the longest period of time I counted without seeing a meteor was about 15 seconds. There were quite a few 5 second periods where I probably saw 20 or so. At one point, it seemed to be intensifying so I looked at my watch 4:58. Right on time! It stayed pretty intense, sloughed off a little, and then seemed to intensify again at 5:30. Some seemed to skip along the atmosphere. Saw a handful of fireballs. Peak one second period probably had 8 meteors in site - maybe six at once. Longest trails were 4-5 fist widths (held at arms length) across the sky. Never noticed colors before in meteors but some of these seemed red and/or green. The streaks often looked green. Gave up when the sky started lightening even though there were still meteors streaking across the sky. I think I was out there about 1.5 hours. I can only imagine what people were seeing who were truly away from populated areas. Found a site with some great pictures. Check them out at http://spaceweather.com/meteors/gallery_18nov01_page2.html. |
Home
Lightweight Backpacking
Tips and Tricks
Gear Reviews and Discussions
Book reviews
AT FAQ and Stats
PCT Self-Resupply
Workshops
Links
RSS
Trip Reports
Gear Lists
Mail Drops
About Me
Acknowledgements
Photos
Updates
Fun
Email Mara