Eyes stuck to the sky in East Lansing on Sunday morning might have been looking for the meteors predicted to pierce through the night - but all they saw was fog.
The Leonid shower occurs every November when the Earth passes through the debris of the Comet Tempel-Tuttle. The debris is clouds of pebbled-size shrapnel shed by the comet as it passes around the sun about every 33 years.
Communication sophomore Nissa Inhulsen said she was disappointed to see a cloudy sky when she looked up at 2 a.m. Sunday.
Although she tried to remember the science behind the shower from high school classes, the dismal view deterred her from watching for long.
“If we were up north, maybe we would have seen it better,” she said. “I was kind of excited. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one.”
Horace Smith, an astronomy professor, said he followed the sky north to Flint before he found a clear patch for stargazing.
From 3 a.m. to 5:40 a.m., the predictions of up to 70 meteors per minute didn’t shine clearly - but there was enough to make the drive worthwhile.
Dim light from the moon and an escape from city lights improved his chances of catching a glimpse of the meteor shower. Next year’s Leonid shower might be less impressive because of a brighter light from the moon, he said.
“It was personally the best I’ve ever seen,” Smith said. “In 10 minute intervals, I was seeing 40 or 50 under conditions that were not optimal. Under optimal conditions, it would be much different.
“The prediction of meteor showers is still more of an art than a science. It’s not like an eclipse where people know for sure what is going to happen.”
Mark Sekelsky, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids, said summer is the best season for viewing meteor showers.
Clouds and fog covered most of Southern Michigan on Sunday morning, hiding the cosmic view across the state. Although peak viewing times for the shower were between 4 a.m. and 7 a.m., sky watchers had a better chance of seeing meteors before midnight, he said.
“The fog was really thickening up and picking up around peak time,” Sekelsky said. “November is not the best month for having clear skies. A meteor shower in August would be much better - it just wasn’t our time this year.”
No-preference sophomore Nicole Riess said the heavy fog and campus lights discouraged her hopes to wish on a star - but she hasn’t given up yet.
The Carnegie Science Center Astronomical Calendar predicts the annual Geminid meteor shower is set to peak at dawn Dec. 13. Like the Leonid meteors coming from the constellation Leo, the Geminids appear to come from the constellation Gemini.
“I wish I would have seen one,” Riess said, peering into darkness at 4 a.m. Sunday. “It makes me think of romantic stuff - laying in a field with your man, watching the stars - or Disney and Tinkerbell.”
