Roarless Leonids

The Leonid meteor shower was nowhere to be seen here at Bowman Woods Park in Cedar Rapids, Iowa during prime viewing time around 3:15 AM, Friday, November 18, 2011. The nearby last quarter moon (upper right) bathed the night sky in its light, washing out meteor streaks. The shower, whose namesake comes from the constellation Leo the Lion, (left of the moon), appears to emanate from that point. Not overcome by the moon's glow was the 0.91 magnitude planet Mars (the lower bright object at the moon's 7 or 8 o'clock position). This image, which looks east, is a 20-second exposure at f/4, 800 ISO and 18mm focal length. The night was very breezy with the air temperature at 35 degrees F.