Expert: Jesse Martinez - 11/17/2009

Question
btw... the email address i need the answer sent to tonight if possible is  but your form wouldn't let me use it.  sorry.  anyway, i will be awake at 2am and would love to catch a possible nice viewing.  thanx.  or text me at .

Answer
I think you should have gotten the answer. I don't think it takes that long.If you don't have a map, here is site that has a fairly simple and good one.

http://geology.com/news/2005/10/how-to-observe-leonid-meteor-shower.html

Lynn, I will repeat the revision just in case, Here goes.

Start looking in the southeast right now. Watch where the first one you see originates from. The rest of them will also originate there. Turn down the brightness of your Internet device to the lowest setting you can. Exposure to bright lights will hurt your chances of seeing some of the dimmer ones. Expect one every one or two minutes. Good luck. Its cloudy where I am or you would not have gotten an answer to this in time. And since now I know that I have a little time before you get going, I think, I will add some extras. The map in the link home page is what I would used just get your bearings. That all you will need. Where they are coming from will be quite apparent when it starts.

All the meteors will appear to be radiating from the same place in Leo's head. This places is called the Radiant. If you have never seen a shower before, be patient. The pace starts slowly, about one every few minutes. At its peak visible hourly rate, about 4 to 5 AM for your location, you stand a good chance of seeing an few groups of meteors that are in the sky at the same time.

In the eighties, (1980's, I camped out for this shower in a dark country location and took few friends for a thoroughly scientific observation, using click counters. All we did was count the number we saw in hourly intervals and making voice recording of unusual observations. You don't want to lose you adaptation to darkness by turning on any lights. So use no flashlights or any other devices like cell phones and laptops unless you have the brightness settings as low as you can BEFOREHAND.

The interesting results: Hours, 1:00 AM to 6:00 AM. Clear skies, good seeing. Number of meteors seen, 253. Worst hour, 31. Best hour 68. Best burst, six in a 2 to 3 second interval. Brightest meteor, EST. mag. of -2. Number of meteors that broke up into two pieces, three; into three pieces, one.

Longest trail, about 90 degrees (half the sky). Shortest, maybe 1 degree, but it burned bright for about three seconds, so it looked like an extreme slow motion effect. That is because it was headed almost straight for us, emanating almost exactly at the radiant.

Also be on the lookout for colors and changes in brightness as they burn up. Hope you get a really good show Lynn. As for me I hope that by 5:00 AM when I get up to check, the clouds are gone so I can catch the good part.

Happy meteor hunting!