METEOR REPORT & The preliminary night/morning

[john59]

Saturday evening started the adventure. Went to see Harry Potter at the movies. Shirley has been reading the books, so she had a head start on me. Took me a bit to sort out the characters.

Next: Rahman/Lewis----Rahman forgot to duck and Lennox Lewis hit him with a roundhouse right. Lights out.

Went to Valley Forge Park (PA) to watch the Leonid Meteor Shower. Got there around 4 AM. Crystal clear & about 30 degrees. Peak was 4:45 till 5:30 AM. Even when we got home at 6:30, we saw two go over the house (pretty light at that time).

Were we alone at Valley Forge? Had to be hundreds of cars. The spot we picked was on a hill with a 30 to 40 mile horizon, southeast to the southwest. A near perfect window.

It was non-stop for the better part of an hour. There goes one. Look 2 of them. Boy that was a big one. Over to the left, 4 of them, one following the other.

I know Sue Ellen was out there looking. I hope she saw the fireworks in the heavens as good as we did.

Anybody else catch the the show ???

To Jeff: Yes my shower turned out to be a bath. A bath of shooting stars.

Almost 7AM-----Time to sack out.

john59

 

[carnellm]

We got up about 4:45am and went outside. We didn't want to wake up the kids and such to go somewhere darker, but it was still a good show. We watched for about 15 to 20 minutes. They were never "solid", usually about 15 to 20 seconds apart. That could have been due to the light around us though.

Very cool though, glad we got up and watched.

Still haven't seen Harry Potter yet. Hopefully this week....

 

[Dom13]

My experience was very much like Michael's. Got up a few minutes after 5 headed out side and stood leaning up agaist the car for about 20 minutes. Sometimes it was 1, 2 or 3 in a row other times is was just a tiny flash out of the corner of my eye. All in all I was glad I got up to see it. Now my sister and father tell me they wanted to see it too. If I had know we could have gone over to Castle Craig in Meriden. They were letting you watch it from up there. Oh Well maybe in 2099.

 

[Mickey527]

Changing Nats words a little but here goes:

I HAD TO SLEEP!!!!!

Peggie

 

[snowgooseltd]

We set up two adirondack chairs on our upper deck and armed with DXL mugs full of steaming coffee and covered in a huge quilt, we watched the show for over an hour and a half, from 4:30 to 6:00am. It was beautiful, quiet and aweinspiring. Like God put on a show just for us. No one else in the neighborhood was up. Glad we made the effort to get up early.

Saw Harry Potter with three of my grandaughters on Friday afternoon, right after school got out. I made a deal with the middle girl, 11, who doesn't like to read. "Read the first book and I'll take you the day it comes out." She not only read the first but the second and is half way through the third. Bribery wins every time. She didn't want to be outdone by the 7 year old who had read it in three days. The 13 year old has read all four, three separate times. If only I could find more books like these to keep them reading.

6 days and counting 'til we're in the "world"!!

 

[SueEllen]

Well, Trevor woke me up at 4:00 a.m. After changing, feeding, and laying him back down, Steve & I went outside by the pool. It was very cold and quiet. I sat bundled in a blanket in one of the swivel rockers where I could look all around. It was so beautiful and quiet. We were the only ones up and outside. I live in the county so the view was spectacular from my house.
At one point, one of them shot across the sky and into the atmosphere. It flashed a bright blue as it burned up. It looked as if it had hit the ground (which we are sure it didn't, but the sight was incredible!) We watched for about 30 minutes or so, then went back in and to sleep.

John, thank you so much for reminding me of this and making a romantic evening with my husband (Friday was our 12th anniversary and we both had to work and didn't get to see each other longer than 10 minutes!)

Sue Ellen

 

[john59]

About 5:20 AM there was one extremely bright shooting star, that was on it's way to the north (from what we were seeing, it was going the wrong way). Then a bright flash which conclude with a sprinkling down of the star. Just like Pixie Dust. The duration of this sprinkling was about 2 to 3 seconds.

Do you think this metorite broke up in the atmosphere ?????

Snowgooseltd (above) said the shower was 'aweinspiring'. I have to agree.

I don't know why, but I did say to Shirley. "You are looking at our destiny". She said 'what do you mean'. I would have not remembered saying this, if she did not challenge me.

My reply was "we are made of star stuff"----I believe it was Carl Sagan who said this.

I will get this all figured out by 2099, the next big show. Boy will I be old. Wait a minute ; I'm really old right now.

john

 

[EpcotKilterFan]

We got up about 3 a.m. and needed to drive a bit away from the city. The biggest concern was the dense fog advisory. Fortunately the fog stayed away for a while!!

Got to a little park about 3:45 a.m. and froze but it was great. One that went over, I swore a plane blew up it was so big and bright. We could hear some young adults about a half mile away cheering anytime one went over.

The fog began to roll in around 5:30 a.m. so we packed it up and got warm again.

And now my mom can not say anything about being at MGM at 4 a.m for a pin (at least it was warmer)

I am glad we watched it, the view was wonderful.

Debbie

 

[snowwhitefan]

I stayed up to see it, and it was foggy here. Darn the luck

 

[p-nut]

Just my luck. The clouds rolled in at midnight and refused to leave.Glad others were able to enjoy though.