Listen To The Leonids

OK, this might not be for everyone, but one of the most amazing nights I ever had was watching the Leonid Meteor Shower. It was 2002, which was one of the peak years - They seemed to be everywhere. It was literally breath taking. The sky appeared to be "raining stars". It was something out of a Spielberg movie. I remember thinking at the time that I could hear them shoot across the sky. It was a very cold, very dark,  moonless night at 7,000 feet in the front yard of our cabin in the Sierras.

The Leonids happen every year around Nov. 17th. I'm not going to make it to the cabin this weekend to see them, but check this out. You can now  listen to the Leonids over the internet. Now you actually can hear them. I found this article this morning which gives some background.

"Meteors burn up in the atmosphere and leave an ionized trail which acts like a mirror to reflect transmitted signals from stations hundreds of miles away," explained Michael Boschat, a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. "Any meteor will be heard this way, but more are usually heard during meteor showers."