So, have you seen meteor showers in the past? What was your experience like?

Gail again; Here’s the link (with star map) from Sky & Telescope Magazine. Nothing will compare to the 100 meteors/minute shower in 2001 but it is still fun. Pay attention to how to stay warm. Morning of the 16th means pre-alarm clock on Tuesday.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/69850097.html

I think getting up would be well worth the display! Hopefully skies are clear.

Good thought. I forgot to mention that you need clear skies, and if possible, dark skies. The ambient glow in and around cities and suburbs blocks out a lot.

@gailcalled Thats Morning of the 17th! 1am Pacific time. I would love to be at my retirement house, which is in the Lassen Mountains, but sadly I still have to work.

I’m planning on waking up and driving out to our ranch to watch it.
It’s going to be fantastic.

But you’re right. Nothing will compare to ‘01.

Maybe! I might not miss this one. But it likely I’ll stay up rather than get up since that didn’t work for the last meteor shower I meant to watch.

Ohhhh I shall definitely try.

@filmfann: You are right about the date; I have managed to confuse myself yet again.

Morning of the 17th, everyone.

I would but things don’t look good.

My favorite teenage memory was when I was staying at a friends home- a mansion on a hill. Her mother woke us up at about 1:00am and dressed us in long fur coats. (She was a Hollywood starlet in her youth and had lots of such gifts from admiring gentlemen)
We walked out into the moonlight of the courtyard with her two large stately Great Danes. It felt so 1920’s as we watched the surreal magestic beauty of the meteor shower. Someday I will paint that scene.

Thanks for the head’s up on tonight! I will set my alarm here in Los Angeles and hopefully there will not be cloud cover!

@Dog: Not tonight. Not tonight. 4:00Am on the morning of the 17th (set your alarm when you go to bed on Mon. night.)

@johnpowell; That does not bode well. Our weather looks more promising at the beginning of the week.

@gailcalled Got it! (Thanks for the correction) For us I believe it will be 1:00am on the 17th as we are West Coast.

Would be fantastic. Not sure we will see much of it here in Europe. :s

@Dog: Correct.

I watched the Pleiades over a few nights this summer and even though there were clouds in the sky, it was beautiful, lightning flashes and darts of light for hours.

I have been looking forward to this for some time now. Our forecast is calling for an 80% chance of rain for both Monday and Tuesday. :(

My daughter & I watched the Leonids together one year; I’m glad we did even though it was pretty cold. I don’t remember what year it was, though… it was the year before they were supposed to be fantastic but at the same time as the full moon, whenever that was. Maybe I’ll look again this year!! Gotta check the weather….

Yes, I have a very fond memory of a meteor shower. My dad used to live in the middle of the country side and when my brother and I spent weekends with him we would often go for a walk down the lanes at night. We often saw some strange things going on in the sky and as there were no street lights or house lights it was usually pretty clear.

My dad is obsessed with space and so when he heard that there was the chance of seeing a meteor shower one evening we got a blanket and some pillows and lay out in the garden just watching the sky. It was amazing!

Its cloudy. :(

I did see one nice one, but that was it. If I can stay awake, I’ll try watching again in about half an hour.

I, too, saw two. Up and out at 3:30AM and up and inside looking out at 4:30. The western sky was brilliant. Orion and his dog shone happily. Murky in the NE and E.

We had cloud cover. I had hoped to get a glimpse and watched the clouds for a while in vain.

The skies were clear when I fell asleep, I woke up two hours later to look for them and it was super cloudy. =/

Anyone know when the next one is? This is the second time in a row where its been too cloudy to see.

@all: Did anyone actually see a shower? Where were you? What was the count per hour?
Was it worth staying up (or getting up) for?

@gailcalled I saw one about 4:30 that escaped the cloud cover. I saw a thing or two out of the corner of my eye that could have been one, but I wasn’t looking straight at them. The one I saw for sure was rather low. My mother saw one when she got up sometime after 6, more north than east. If the weather had been clear, it would have been great.