If you go down to the woods today

Posted on November 18, 2006
Filed Under Outside Dublin, fauna, health, nature, photography, sci-fi, science, sea, Shout Out, weekend, winter | Comments Off

If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise.

If you’re stumbling home from the pub later tonight/tomorrow morning, don’t be surprised if you see bright lights in the sky. It won’t be the alcohol. Well, I guess it depends on how much you’ve been imbibing! Or how much the person who hits you over the head with a beer bottle has been drinking. It’s more likely to be the Leonids. Astronomy.ie says that there may be a good chance of seeing intense meteor showers tonight around 4am.

from astronomy.ie’s website
…However, this year, the annual return of the ‘Leonid’ Meteor shower affords us the opportunity to view a meteor shower which looks set to rival even its more famous cousins.

The ‘Leonid’ meteor shower derives its name from the constellation of Leo, from which on the night of November 17th, a steady stream of meteors or ‘shooting stars’ appear to emanate. The reason for this regular and predictable occurrence is the fact that at the same time each year, the Earth encounters a stream of debris left behind by the Comet 55/P Temple-Tuttle. Temple-Tuttle returns to the inner solar system every 33 years, re-seeding the inner solar system with fresh supplies of ‘meteoroids’. The last return of this comet was in 1995 and the following year saw significantly heightened activity from this shower. The diagram above shows the position of the radiant which is over 50Â° above the south-eastern horizon by 4am. It is worth noting that the radiant of this shower doesn’t rise at all until after midnight so there is little to be seen before this.

Here’s some photo’s I took very early this morning (long & boring story). Sometimes it pays dividends to just wander around and keep your eyes open. Although then I guess you wouldn’t be surprised very often?

Is this the queue?