Get ready for the Leonids!

 Posted by on 16 November 2009  Modern Life
Nov 162009
 

I’m a big fan of meteor showers, even if they often happen to be a bust — either it’s too cloudy, or this doesn’t happen to be a good year, or I miss the best day or the best hour.

The Leonids are one of those reliable meteor showers that happens ever year. And I hardly ever go out to see them. Because it’s November.

This year, though, at least where I am, the weather is fine — a bit chilly, but for November, I’ll take it — and I think it would behoove me to check them out.

Luckily, NASA provides what they call a Fluximator (great name!) which allows you to calculate the best time for your location to get out there and look up.

This year’s Leonids appears to peak, where I am, just before 1:30 a.m. on Monday night. It’s a VERY BRIEF PEAK — the rate doubles between 1:10 a.m. and 1:26 a.m. and then falls off a cliff. This is bad news for dedicated meteor watchers, but it’s also pretty good news because there’s no reason to stay out there in the cold for very long.

Of course, like any nighttime cosmic event, it’s best to get far, far away from city lights.

That’s why I’m so happy to have found a “dark sky” resource online — ClearDarkSky.com. First of all, if you follow the links to your home area, it will automatically sniff out the weather forecast for you, and tell you the best day and time to go stargazing. (With a meteor shower, you don’t have too much choice, but you can at least check to see if it’ll be cloudy.)

Better, though, there’s a link to light pollution maps. The one for Brandon is reproduced below:

BrndnMBlp

This square is about 240 km east-west and 370 km north-south, with the US/Canada border as that white line. Brandon’s marked with the blue crosshairs.

If you want to do some driving, I’ve checked out the darkest areas — obviously, there’s the Riding Mountain “handgun” shape up north, but there are also promising dark splotches around Rock Lake, the north shore of Whitewater Lake, and a stretch of Highway 2 between Souris and Pipestone. There’s a large dark area west of Hamiota and south of Birtle, too.

Grant Hamilton

  • Naomi

    The night sky is always so interesting, and I am in total agreement about the weather being cold enough to stand for a short period of time. November has never been so brilliant.

    I am most definitely finding a cold dark road somewhere in the middle of the night to watch this! Thanks for the heads up!

    Though I’m not sure where you see a “handgun” shape, this is very, very cool. I especially like the ClearSky link. I’m also enjoying looking at the light pollution map, and highly amused about the logistics of boating on Rock Lake in November to see a meteor shower.

    Actually, when I think about it, I drive home from Crystal City by Rock Lake and it truly is one of the darkest spots on the road home.

    • http://www.absurdintellectual.com/ Grant Hamilton

      Probably sitting on the shore of Rock Lake would be dark enough. Maybe a bonfire before, which you could let settle down to coals before watching the sky.

      If you take a look at a map of Riding Mountain, it has a definite handgun shape. it’s a little nebulous in the light pollution map (the area north of RMNP is all pretty dark) but once you’ve seen it, you can never unsee it.

      I think, personally, that Highway 2, just west of Souris, and turning off down a side road, is the closest and best bet.

  • Naomi

    OHhh, I see! (I was looking at the dark, not the light). I also agree that Highway 2 is best. Also closer.

    • http://www.absurdintellectual.com/ Grant Hamilton

      ha :) actually, come to look at it again, I’ll bet that the handgun shape in the light is actually the outer border of the park — the park itself bleeds into the darkness northwest of it. The blob that is Dauphin makes it look like a raygun.

  • thebanana

    There’s an observation tower in the old Grand Valley Campground (the old waterslide place) that might work.