On November 17, the University Lowbrow Astronomers had a special open house at Hudson Mills Metropark (located near Dexter Michigan) to observe the Leonid Meteor shower. Unfortunately, fog settled in rather early, but it was a chance for the public to look through telescopes and listen to astronomy talks. This page shows some of the astronomy talks and a group picture of Lowbrows “waiting for the fog to lift.” The astronomy talks were given to a group of Girl Scouts seeking their Astronomy Badge. The talks included Stars Charts, Telescopes and Optical Aids, Comets and Meteors, Our Solar System and Astro-Mythology.
The previous page shows various Lowbrows in the process of setting up telescopes.
Unfortunately the fog did not lift until about 1PM the next day. Since the Leonids are only visible for a few hours at best, this ruined any chance of observing them this year. If you observed from Dexter or any location nearby, you probably only saw one or two meteors before the fog settled in. However many North American observers saw over a thousand meteors per hour at the peak.
“2001 - A Leonid Odyssey (November 20, 2001).” by Clayton Kessler
All photographs on this page were taken by Dave Snyder.