Camelopardalids Meteor shower

[Sniper]

Supposed to have numerous meteor sightings last night (this morning) with a possibility of a spectacular shower of up to 1000 per hour. Didn't work out that way. I hear the best time was 12:00 am to 2:00 am with a few sightings. I checked it out at 3:00 am to 4:00 am and seen one. But... at 3:40 by my watch, I did see the International Space Station fly by so it wasn't a wash out at all. Man is that thing moving, over 17000 mph and approx 270 miles up. (Faster than a speeding rat rod) From my vantage point, and from the view I had, I got to watch it for about 45 seconds, pretty cool stuff IMHO.

 

[donsrods]

I don't know if this is the same thing, but years ago my Son Dan and I were night fishing on a night when there was supposed to be some special meteor activity. We kept looking up into the sky and there were occasional blips of meteors shooting by so we thought that was what they were talking about on the news.

But all of a sudden we looked up and there was the HUGE round fiery thing moving slowly across the sky ! When I say HUGE I mean like Moon size huge and it had trailing smoke behind it ! I honestly can't find words to describe what we saw, all I could say was "Holy S*** !!!!" I understand it only happens every so many years.

I have never seen anything like it since or before. Is that what this thing is you are talking about ?

Don


Don

 

[Sniper]

Don, This is like Haley's comet, it leaves a debris trail in it's wake and sooner or later earth will pass through the path it took, and run into the bits of dust and small rocks that were left behind. They only discovered this comet in 2006 or 2009 and didn't know about it before. At first it was thought it was a new comet, but since lots of studies, they are rethinking it and are now thinking it's a real old comet and it's orbit is huge and very seldom. If that's the case it's "cleaned up a bit" and not losing as much loose stuff off of it as it goes by. Since the meteor's we see are the bits and pieces of these comets hitting our atmosphere and burning up, it stands to reason that if it not shedding as much we don't get to see as much. If earth's orbit should miss the debris trail, we won't see any meteors either. They (the scientists) thought it may be a big deal this time if it's a new dirty comet losing a lot of junk, producing lots to see.

Back in the 1800's and again in 1966 there was a large meteor storm from another debris field as earth passed through it, (kind of a direct hit on the comets orbit) that was something to see. In the 1800's before much was understood by the general public on the subject, it was thought the world was coming to the end. It's pretty well a once in a lifetime event. I'll give it go again tonight and see what happens. If you think of the debris trail to be like the dust plume of a speeding car on a dirt road, you can get an idea what is left behind the comet. (It's just not that thick and intense) If earths orbit just grazes the debris trail or we go through one of the billowing areas of the main plume you would see a small sample of a meteor shower. But hit it dead on and it will be something else, then it becomes a meteor storm. The Leonid and Perseid are couple of the better know events because they keep happening every year, we keep going through the dust trails on a regular basis very fall. Time to quit...this turning into a book.

 

[Willowbilly3]

I don't know if this is the same thing, but years ago my Son Dan and I were night fishing on a night when there was supposed to be some special meteor activity. We kept looking up into the sky and there were occasional blips of meteors shooting by so we thought that was what they were talking about on the news.

But all of a sudden we looked up and there was the HUGE round fiery thing moving slowly across the sky ! When I say HUGE I mean like Moon size huge and it had trailing smoke behind it ! I honestly can't find words to describe what we saw, all I could say was "Holy S*** !!!!" I understand it only happens every so many years.

I have never seen anything like it since or before. Is that what this thing is you are talking about ?


Don


Don

Don, that happened to my dad and me when I was about 13. We were coming home about midnight and it lit up the sky like it was day.

 

[21willys]

I slept in my truck along I44 in Rolla Missouri last night. I watched the sky off and on from about 2am til 5am and didn't see a thing. Kind of disappointed lol.

 

[Sniper]

Yeah, I was up at midnight for awhile, and again around 2:30 but didn't see anything. Lots of hipe, but a bust I'm sorry to say. Mother Nature can be finicky, that's for sure. Middle of November will be the Leonide meteor shower which generally has a pretty good meteor count. Back about 28 years ago, my now wife and I were watching the Leonide shower. We parked along a gravel road, and were sitting in lawn chairs looking up. There were enough meteors that we seeing them at the same time but not the same ones. They were happening all around us and I kept leaning back trying to take in more of the sky. That is until my chair broke, and collapsed in a heap with me pinched up in it falling over backward into the ditch. One of us at the time thought it was real funny and almost pee'd her pants laughing. That story still gets told when the subject of meteor showers comes up. Well...yeah, now it's kind of funny.

 

[Snake Farm]

We are big sky watchers here, but I too was disappointed.......up at 1:30 and 4:00 and didn't see any. Always look forward to the Leonid Shower too as it's usually a pleaser. About ten or twelve years ago when it yielded 500-600 an hour we watched almost all night. After a few hours of lying in the yard my daughter and I decided to go in a watch out the windows. We made a game of it and went to every window in the house and watched till we saw one. We can now say that we have saw a meteor from every pane of glass in our house including upper and lower window sashes, doors and sidelights! I've seen literally hundreds of thousands of them in my fifty plus years of watching and never get tired of them. It still amazes me though how many folks I run into that have never seen one. [S