Leonid Meteor Shower hike from Damascus, Nov 14-17, '08

[Rain Man]

[Also posted on WhiteBlaze.net]

The Leonid Meteor shower should be full strength on the weekend of November 16-17. Backpacker magazine (Nov issue) recommends going to a wilderness mountain top in NC area to view the shooting stars. The AT in VA is close enough for me! Weather permitting, we should be able to see the shooting stars each and every night. Might want to cowboy camp instead of hammock hang?

Anyone interested in a hike NOBO out of Damascus, perhaps starting Friday, Nov 14, and finishing up on Monday, the 17th? Ideally, I would come out at Dickey Gap/Troutdale on Monday mid-day, but am flexible on all details.

I have posted an invite on Nashville Backpackers MeetUp Group too, to see if I get any nibbles on driving over together on Thursday evening.

Rain Man

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[slowhike]

I was fortunate enough to be backpacking on top of Shortoff Mt in Linville Gorge, NC, during a great meteor shower in 01 or 02.
I wasn't really expecting much, but boy, was I supprized!!!
It was like one shooting star after another, no more than about 5 seconds apart, & often times 2 or 3 at a time!!!
I'll never forget it! I hope your trip turns out as well.

[Rain Man]

I was fortunate enough to be backpacking on top of Shortoff Mt in Linville Gorge, NC, during a great meteor shower in 01 or 02.
I wasn't really expecting much, but boy, was I supprized!!!
It was like one shooting star after another, no more than about 5 seconds apart, & often times 2 or 3 at a time!!!
I'll never forget it! I hope your trip turns out as well.

Thanks for the report! I think Backpacker said 40 an hour was expected.

I was cowboy-camped on Rich Mountain just out of Hot Springs a couple of years ago and to my surprise got to watch shooting stars for a couple of hours as I listened to a college game on my radio.

I've had one request to move the hike back one day, to make it Friday to Tuesday, but no decision has been made yet. Due to all the road crossing, folks could join us for a day or two if they wanted. We could swap cell phone numbers and make sure of final plans, once those are made.

Rain Man

[elcolombianito]

Calculate the meteor shower activity at your site.
The handy Fluxtimator below (link) is a Java applet that allows you to calculate the expected shower rate for a given date and a given location. It also allows you to see the difference between staying downtown or moving out into the country side to a dark and clear location. All rates were calculated by taking into account the Moon light, but assume a transparent cloud-less sky and unobstructed field of view.

FLUXTIMATOR: http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/estimator.html

[Rain Man]

Per requests, I am changing this hike from Fri-Mon to Saturday-Tuesday, Nov 15-18, 2008.

Instead of driving over on Thursday, we will be driving over on Friday evening late and will start hiking Saturday and will finish up Tuesday at (or near) Dickey Gap/Troutdale.

Right now I have 6 definite Yes's and one wanting to join us only for the weekend. Anyone else?

Rain Man

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