2002 Leonid Meteor Shower
November 26, 2002
Provided and copyright by: Jimmy Herrera
Summary authors & editors: Jim Foster; Jimmy Herrera
The above photo shows 2 meteors (upper left and lower left) over Estación Marte, Coahuila, México during last week's Leonid Meteor Shower. A Yuka palm frames a portion of the eastern sky, and brilliant Jupiter points the way to the constellation of Leo the Lion, the direction from which many of the meteors originated. The general consensus among most stargazers is that this year's Leonids didn't compare favorably with the the 2001 Leonid event. The full Moon dimmed many "shooting stars," and there didn't seem to be quite as many as were predicted. Nevertheless, there was still plenty to see, and numerous viewers reported seeing several fireballs. It was certainly worth getting up a little early for, especially since the next great Leonid Meteor Shower won't occur for perhaps another 99 years.
To make this photo, an Olympus OM-1 camera was mounted on a tripod using an exposure time of 4 minutes (Kodak 800 film, 28 mm f/4 lens).
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