The Leonid meteor shower comes around again, best seen in the after-midnight hours of the coming night, November 16/17.
See the end note about enlarging illustrations.
This scene shows the Leonids’ radiant – the point in the head of the Lion constellation from which the meteors fly out into any part of the sky – rising into view after midnight. As the night goes on, the radiant will climb higher and more of these “shooting star” streaks will be above the horizon.
The meteors are particles that burn up as they plunge into Earth’s atmosphere. They follow roughly in the orbit of the comet from which they were shed, 55P Tempel-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1865, has a period of about 33 years, last visited the inner solar system in 1998, and is expected back in 2031. Since the orbit meets Earth’s orbit almost head-on, the meteors are among the very swiftest, and are seen on the front side of Earth, that is, in the morning hours.
In this space picture, Earth is seen from ecliptic north (the north pole of its orbit). The broad flat arrow shows its flight along its orbit in one minute, and the arrow on its equator shows its rotation in 3 hours. The actual stream of particles in space is millions of miles wide; the dotted line represents only those that happen to arrive from exactly overhead. America is coming around into fuller view of the hemisphere of sky that the Leonids appear in.
This is a favorable year in that moonlight does not interfere. The Moon is around in almost the same direction as the Sun.
Some outlying members of the vast stream may be seen on surrounding nights. The radiant moves slightly from day to day, as Earth travels through the stream; this is shown by the arrow through the radiant point.
The Leonid stream is dramatically unpredictable. You may see few. But on occasion the stream has produced the greatest meteor storms in history: 1833. when people thought the world was ending, and 1966 when the estimated rate was more than 40 a second!
So give it a chance: wrap up warmly, go out to a dark place, and keep your awareness on the whole sky for at least a few minutes.
Meanwhile, on the evening side of the sky, Jupiter is drawing ever nearer to its Great Conjunction with Saturn in December – about which I am working up some diagrams.
The Lion is the king of beasts, Jupiter is the king of gods, Saturn was his predecessor as chief god, and there are some, but few, who inherit not only a high title but a mind worthy of it –
Gods on Earth Department
Some laugh at the Dalai Lama for saying that he could be succeeded by a woman, so long as she is “very attractive.” He apologized, but my guess is that, because of the cheerful humility characteristic of him, he didn’t bother to explain his English as meaning that she should have the quality to inspire followers. And if you can’t laugh at his joke that world leaders should be put into a room and carbon dioxide pumped into it till they get serious about global warming by atmospheric pollution, you’re not qualified to appreciate cartoons or Swiftian satire. I would have been pleased to think of that parable myself!
How could those who chose a two-year-old in a remote eastern Tibetan village to be the 14th Dalai Lama have known that he would grow into a moral leader so strong that he can even forgive the Chinese?
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This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.
I always thought the Dalai Lama enjoyed his almost rock-star status among progressives and elites around the world, and scrupulously cultivated that status. However, his comments a few years ago regarding refugees in Europe caused me to reevaluate. He would hardly say this if he was all about just currying favor with the global establishment:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/dalai-lama-europe-refugee-crisis-immigration-eu-racism-tibet-buddhist-a8537221.html
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, is a remarkable human being. He expresses a combination of kindness, humility, good humor, and political savvy that is quite remarkable in either a political or religious leader, let alone somebody who wears both of those hats. He is a devoted Buddhist monk and a thoroughly modern person who values science and liberal democracy. A few years ago, when the Chinese government was making moves to co-opt the selection of the 15th Dalai Lama after Gyatso’s death, His Holiness said that he might not reincarnate, so there would not be another Dalai Lama. He had already transitioned political power in the Tibetan exile community to an elected leader, Lobsang Sangay, so that a Dalai Lama appointed by Beijing would not be able to claim political authority over the exile community.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-30510018
They wouldn’t need to sit in a room pumped full of carbon dioxide just join oligarch Elon Musk as he lands on Mars in 2023 naturally claiming the planet for himself.of course we don’t really have to worry as it seems unlikely any human will set foot on Mars in Musk’s lifetime.well he has one good point,he doesn’t grin as much as fellow oligarch Richard Branson! I’m afraid nothing will happen about co2 as long as the right to bear cars exists probably the most destructive and selfish machine ever invented and we’ve invented a lot of bad things! meanwhile on the western edge of Asia the world is about to lose a country the self declared Nagorno Karabakh unrecognized by the UN.it looks like with Turkish help and Russia deliberately standing by and doing nothing Azerbaijan now has the upper hand and the Armenians are leaving.to think that I nearly went to Nagorno Karabakh about 3 years ago when I was in Yerevan, Armenia but visited Tiblisi, Georgia instead….a with bigs waterfalls in it.
Can’t count the times I tried to explain the deeper meaning of the Dalai Lama’s use of “attractive”. Think magnets. They attract. So should leaders. Magnets ain’t about beauty but are all about pull, magnetism, a highly useful trait when it’s time to get things done. As in now. And ever more.