On Sat, 11 Oct 2003 18:22:21 GMT, "David Nakamoto" wrote:

I don't know if part of this is the fault of the press, but I bet most of it
is. The plain fact of the matter is that these meteor streams in space are
not continuous or evenly spread along their path. Clumps of material occur,
and in fact have to occur given the origin of the material and to a lesser
extend the gravitational effects of the planets. But in the Grand Tradition
of glossing over the details nd painting the picture in overly-broad
strokes, the media gives the impression that the sky will fill with stars.
This happened with the Leonids a couple of times, but the effect, if memory
serves, was fairly localized and the duration short. So the distortion
caused by the press, and perhaps by wishful thinking and hoping, hypes the
event and raises expectations to unrealistic levels.

Indeed. And this also describes the situation in 1966, where the vast majority
of people saw only a good Leonid year, not the storm of a lifetime. My
conditions in 2001 were better than in 1966.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com