LV scientists enjoy fiery light show

Wednesday, Nov. 18, 1998 | 12:26 p.m.

For Southern Nevada astronomers who headed for Nelson's Landing southeast of Las Vegas, the Leonid meteor showers put on a dazzling display.

One fireball was so bright, it almost cast shadows under nearby bushes, said Robert Pippin, manager of the Community College of Southern Nevada's planetarium.

About 200 fiery streaks an hour appeared between midnight and 4 a.m. Tuesday when clouds moved across the sky and blocked the shower, said Dale Etheridge, the director of the college's planetarium.

The dazzling show could continue this week, although the thickest swarm of comet dust from Tempel-Tuttel crossed earth's path at 11:40 a.m. Las Vegas time Tuesday.

The Leonid shower comes every year in mid-November, but every 33 years a rare, brilliant spectacle lights up the night skies.

The meteor storm bombards earth when the planet enters the dense debris streaming behind comet Tempel-Tuttle, discovered by the Chinese in 902 near the constellation Leo.

The last big show came in 1966 with about 144,000 streaks an hour. So this year and next sky watchers have something to anticipate.

While China and Japan have the the best vantage point, next year Europe and North Africa will offer the best views.

Traveling at more than 150,000 mph, those particles ranging in size from cosmic dust to a marble pack quite a wallop. Scientists protected communications and military satellites from a close encounter with a Leonid.

No major damage to any satellite has been reported.

By next century, the Community College's planetarium will be ready for a look at the Leonid meteor shower up close from the international space station, Etheridge said.

The planetarium has been named as a Star Station One, a site that is part of the multipurpose space laboratory set up on earth to follow the construction of an international space station. The idea is to follow the space station's progress, and science students can build a replica of the orbiting lab on earth.

The first launch from Kazakstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome on Friday will open the space orbit program at the planetarium. That Russian launch begins a series of 45 international trips to build the space station.

The second launch, scheduled for Dec. 3 from Cape Canaveral, sends America's Endeavor space shuttle carrying a six-astronaut crew to rendezvous in orbit with the Zarya Control Module from which the space station will be built.

Scheduled for completion in 2004, the international space station will be tracked at the Cheyenne Campus, one of 60 sites in the United States to host a live video of the construction progress of the station.

The space station will circle the earth while the local planetarium will watch it as Nevada's only link to the international crew building it. Earthlings will build a space station at the planetarium in North Las Vegas over the next three years and when completed, will have a replica of the floating space station on earth.

"The college's involvement in such space exploration will help increase public excitement and understanding about science and math," Etheridge said.