During a meteor shower, would you see the same meteors at the same time in FL and MT?

Question

My boyfriend and I are temporarily apart, he lives in Montana and I live in Florida. I told about the meteor shower coming up, and we wanted to both watch and it would help us feel closer together. We were wondering if we'd see the same meteor action at the same time or not. Anybody know?

Answer 1

Doutful, unless the meteors are about the size of a moon. Is this one of those "If I see, you see it, and we love each other" kinda thing? If it is, all you need is each other. lol. Usualy when a meteor shower is announced it is usually at a time and an area, like I wont be able to see the solar eclipse coming soon :-(.

Hope this helps!!!

Answer 2

Not at that distance. You will be seeing different bits of dust and rock burn up about 100 miles up. The curve of the Earth and the distance would prevent you from seeing the same ones.

Answer 3

As long as they are American meteors I don't see a problem.

Answer 4

I would think so, but I'm not completely sure. That's a nice thought, tho.

Answer 5

yes you would, I had a long distance relationship, he was in Michigan and I was in West Central Florida and we used to talk on the phone and look up at the moon and navigate to a star we both could see and we would say " I'll see you in the stars tonight"..

Answer 6

Meteor showers usually occur while the earth is passing through the tail of a long gone comet.  You will be watching the same shower (if the weather is clear in both locations).  However, the light is emitted while usually tiny grains of 'sand' are burning up from oxygen in the atmosphere and the light should be too dim to be seen from great distances apart (unless you use a video camera?).  You could compare notes while both of you are on cell phones.  And you could both see the same star (in the Big Dipper, etc.).

Answer 7

The question is really about geometry.  The way to calculate the answer is in the link below.  Assume that a meteor is a bright light hung at 60 miles which is about where they begin to burn up.  A bright light at 60 miles would be seen for 695 miles in any direction.  The people at exactly 695 miles would see the bright light as a dot on the horizon, if there was a mountain or tree they wouldn't see it at all.   So 600 to 650 miles is more realistic.  But never mind, let's take 695 miles.  

The distance between Billings MT and Tallahassee FL is about 2000 miles.  Billings is in the corner of MT closest to FL and Tallahassee is in the part of FL closest to MT.   So we're trying to set this up in favor of sharing the meteor.  

So the answer to your question is no.    Even if the meteor did a long streak 500 miles long, which would be rare, you still wouldn't BOTH be able to see it.

A "shooting star" or "falling star"--correctly stated in the question as a meteor--enters the atmosphere at about 60 miles and then burns up.  It is not the same as a question about the visibility of a star pure and simple, which some other people have raised in the answers.  You can see mostly the same stars in Billings that you can in Tallahassee, but in Tallahassee you'll have a further view to the south that will let you see stars you can't see from Billings.  But oddly, you can see from FL *all* the stars that you can see from MT, but the view will be more restricted by the season.  As you head N you see stars rotating "under" Polaris (true N) that would be below the horizon in FL.  

But that's all besides the point.  The shared meteor between MT and FL is a no-go.  

Or put it this way.  The kind of meteor that you both could see from FL and MT, would probably be the last thing that you and anyone else who saw it would ever see.  

Hope that helps,

GN

ps.  I won't get into the details, but we basically "rotate into" meteor showers and the best viewing time is typically midnight to 2 a.m.  Your BF is in a different time zone and further west, so you'll be "passing out" of the optimal zone for seeing meteors at about the time that he is "passing in."

Answer 8

No, due to the curvature of the earth.