Leonid show not a star studded one

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer

The Leonid meteor shower was a bust.

Many Hawai'i residents went out after midnight yesterday to view what was predicted to be the last, best Leonid show of the century.

"I stayed up all night waiting for that thing and we didn't get nothin'," said Waikiki resident John Jackson.

Bishop Museum Planetarium Manager Mike Shanahan said he spent an hour at Sandy Beach yesterday from midnight until shortly after 1 a.m. and another half-hour at Kalama beach from 2 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. and was disappointed not to see any meteors at all.

"Predicting the Leonids remains, apparently, an imperfect art," he said.

Calculating the Earth's passage through a cloud of dust left hundreds of years ago by a passing meteor may actually be as difficult as it sounds, he said.

"Despite the indications of the best predictors (i.e. the astronomer teams with the best track records of predicting the Leonid peaks over the past three years), it was officially a bust," Shanahan said.

"The reports that I'm getting from all around the state are that it was no more than an average night for shooting stars."

Reports elsewhere in the world from areas as diverse the U.S. Midwest and India were that the show was excellent when the constellation Leo was overhead and skies were clear. The Leonids appear to come from the direction of that constellation.

Leo was on the horizon at the scheduled meteor peak in Hawai'i.

It was clear enough at Raleigh, N.C., that Debbie Moose and her husband, Rob Vatz, saw 20 to 25 meteors in the 45 minutes or so that they stood outside in the freezing cold.

"Some were little pinpoints, but some were really bright, like flaming golf balls," Moose said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.