Forecast for this morning: scattered meteor showers

Last night, or more like this morning, I drove out to see the annual Leonid meteor shower.

I'd gone out to see a shower maybe once before in my life, back in high school. I don't remember seeing anything substantial. (In fact, the first shooting start I do remember seeing was on the night I first kissed a girl. How's that for poetic?) So I really didn't know what to expect.

Where I live, I can drive about fifteen minutes in any direction and be in a fairly deserted area of soybean and dairy farms between towns. Dark surroundings mean more light shows from the sky, so drive I did, at about 2:00 a.m. this morning. The peak west cost time was predicted to be 2:30, with high activity stretching from 2:00 to 3:30. After a bit of roaming I found a sidestreet with no residential lights, good visibility, and a dearth traffic, pulled to the side, and sat facing east with my back to the front tire.

Even with a full moon in the sky, if you waited, you couldn't miss the streaks crossing the sky. What surprised me most was how varied they were. There was no one direction, no one patch of sky, and no one color that was more prevalent than any other. Yes, color! Blue, orange, white, green... That would have to be the pleasant discovery of the evening.

It was late, I was tired, it was chilly out there and I didn't have a comfortable seat, so I only managed a half hour of viewing before climbing back in the car and winding my way home. I have no idea if I'll try harder to see next year's under better conditions. Probably not, unless I can find others to do it with.