The Leonids (lee-uh-nids) are a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Tempel-Tuttle. The Leonids get their name from the location of their radiant in the constellation Leo: the meteors appear to stream from that point in the sky. The 2009 display peaking on November 17 may produce more than 500 meteors an hour. This is not enough to rate it as a meteor storm which has over 1,000 meteors an hour. Earth moves through the meteoroid stream of particles left from the passages of the comet. The stream comprises solid particles, known as meteoroids, ejected by the comet as its frozen gases evaporate under the heat of the Sun which begins to warm the comet as it comes within the orbit of Jupiter. A typical particle is no bigger than fine dust. The main source of light of a meteor is caused by the air molecules ramming the meteoroid, which fragments and atomizes the dust, and the resulting spray of microscopic debris collides with individual atoms of the atmosphere ionizing the air. The air molecules recombine and cool by giving off photons. Larger particles leave a stream of smaller particles and form a bolide or fireball, which can leave a glowing trail in the atmosphere. Leonids in particular are well known for having such bright meteors.
Mark McCloud is the Doctor Strange of the art world. Most days he can be found pottering about in his Sanctum Sanctorium, up on the top floor of his old Victorian house in the Mission district of San Francisco, a curio sanctuary deposit of times past. Hundreds of antiques and countercultural books, dozens and dozens of old Victorian apocatherary bottles of every shape and size, Robert Williams hot rod art, toolboxes, surgical instruments, a neon red finger sign, LSD blotter art and a million other things besides clutter the space, and in the office next to the bedroom is a huge Sätty 1960s graffiti artist print with an All-Seeing Eye of Agamotto peering out. The downstairs lounge of McCloud’s San Francisco home is a private art gallery dedicated to what could be called America’s most “illuminating” art form, de-activated samples and sheets of acid from the sixties to the noughts collected everywhere from the local street corner to the other side of the world. Stumbling through his collection is like one giant flashback to every acid trip you’ve ever had, immortalized right there on his wall
