[meteorite-list] Leonids from UK

From: STUARTATK_at_aol.com <STUARTATK_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:06:16 2004
Message-ID: <12b.1b5af89d.2b0b9247_at_aol.com>

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Just about thawed-out now after a late night/early morning Leonid Watch...

Have to say the display was rather disappointing. Ironically, we had almost
clear skies here in usually-cloudy Cumbria, for the whole of the night, so
two friends and I set up camp on a quiet country lane with clear all-sky
views expecting a fine show. Jupiter was blazing like a lantern in the east,
just beside the Sickle of Leo, and to the right of Orion an almost-Full Moon
was ablaze, brighter than I've seen it for a long time... not a good thing on
a meteor shower night of course, but after a day of watching clouds gathering
menacingly I was happy to be able to see *anything*...

We started our watch just after local midnight, and things got off to a very
slow start, maybe one every five minutes or so, tho we got the strong
impression of lots of fainter ones zipping about juston the edge of
visibility in the strong moonlight... occasionally a brighter one would spit
or dash across the sky, sometimes leaving a ghostly blue train behind it, but
rates were low, and fireballs non-existent.

A couple of hours later, Jupiter was high above the fells,
startlingly-bright, and the meteors were picking up some... but only some...
still fireballs were very few and far between, just a couple in an hour, and
they dropped behind the horizon beneath Leo rather than spear across broader
areas of sky. But by 3am, with frost forming on the car roof and owls hooting
in the distance we were seeing a Leonid every couple of minutes or so, and it
was looking promising...

4am came, and rates started to climb... zip... zip... zip zip... sometimes
two or three in quick succession, but *still* no exceptionally bright ones,
and very few leaving trains behind... one bright orange meteor skidded across
the sky towards Orion, flaring a couple of times before sputtering out
disappointingly... but our predicted local peak was 04.06 so we crossed our
fingers...

And the prediction was spot-on. Just after 4.05 we were looking up and
watching meteors spearking out of Leo in all directions, sometimes one every
second or so, sometimes in bursts of two or three, and we knew that if the
Moon hadn't been there we would have seen many, many more... of course, that
bright Moon was beautiful in its own right, and was surrounded by a
Monet-like halo as it shone thru the thin layer of hi-altitude cloud, but it
was drowning out the fainter meteors, we could tell, and it was *so*
frustrating knowing that we were only seeing maybe ten percent of all the
meteors that were dashing across the sky. The ones we could see were pretty
colourless too, pale blues and hints of orange, none of the vibrant blues or
even greens gasped at in past years. It was as if the Moon had white-washed
everything, bleaching out the colours. Very frustrating -

Then everything went quiet, and we knew our peak was over. Rates dropped
sharply, noticeably, we *felt* them plummet almost, and we were back to one
every minute or so, just faint ones, token efforts really... so, after four
and a half hours of neck strain and gritty-eyed sky-staring we packed up our
cameras, flasks and supplies and headed back. Back home I gave it another
twenty minutes or so, but there really wasn't much going on, so I turned in...

... and now, after several radio interviews I think I can safely say that the
show is over. No "storm" fom the UK - well, from my part of the UK anyway -
but it was fun to watch nonetheless, and I had good company, including a
"First timer" who'd never seen a meteor shower before, and her enthusiasm was
nice to share and be warmed by.

Hope everyone out there saw at least *something*. If not, never fear, it'll
soon be time for the mid-December Geminid shower - and the Moon won't be a
problem.

Stu

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<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><FONT SIZE=2>Just about thawed-out now after a late night/early morning Leonid Watch...
<BR>
<BR>Have to say the display was rather disappointing. Ironically, we had almost clear skies here in usually-cloudy Cumbria, for the whole of the night, so two friends and I set up camp on a quiet country lane with clear all-sky views expecting a fine show. Jupiter was blazing like a lantern in the east, just beside the Sickle of Leo, and to the right of Orion an almost-Full Moon was ablaze, brighter than I've seen it for a long time... not a good thing on a meteor shower night of course, but after a day of watching clouds gathering menacingly I was happy to be able to see *anything*...
<BR>
<BR>We started our watch just after local midnight, and things got off to a very slow start, maybe one every five minutes or so, tho we got the strong impression of lots of fainter ones zipping about juston the edge of visibility in the strong moonlight... occasionally a brighter one would spit or dash across the sky, sometimes leaving a ghostly blue train behind it, but rates were low, and fireballs non-existent.
<BR>
<BR>A couple of hours later, Jupiter was high above the fells, startlingly-bright, and the meteors were picking up some... but only some... still fireballs were very few and far between, just a couple in an hour, and they dropped behind the horizon beneath Leo rather than spear across broader areas of sky. But by 3am, with frost forming on the car roof and owls hooting in the distance we were seeing a Leonid every couple of minutes or so, and it was looking promising...
<BR>
<BR>4am came, and rates started to climb... zip... zip... zip zip... sometimes two or three in quick succession, but *still* no exceptionally bright ones, and very few leaving trains behind... one bright orange meteor skidded across the sky towards Orion, flaring a couple of times before sputtering out disappointingly... but our predicted local peak was 04.06 so we crossed our fingers...
<BR>
<BR>And the prediction was spot-on. Just after 4.05 we were looking up and watching meteors spearking out of Leo in all directions, sometimes one every second or so, sometimes in bursts of two or three, and we knew that if the Moon hadn't been there we would have seen many, many more... of course, that bright Moon was beautiful in its own right, and was surrounded by a Monet-like halo as it shone thru the thin layer of hi-altitude cloud, but it was drowning out the fainter meteors, we could tell, and it was *so* frustrating knowing that we were only seeing maybe ten percent of all the meteors that were dashing across the sky. The ones we could see were pretty colourless too, pale blues and hints of orange, none of the vibrant blues or even greens gasped at in past years. It was as if the Moon had white-washed everything, bleaching out the colours. Very frustrating -
<BR>
<BR>Then everything went quiet, and we knew our peak was over. Rates dropped sharply, noticeably, we *felt* them plummet almost, and we were back to one every minute or so, just faint ones, token efforts really... so, after four and a half hours of neck strain and gritty-eyed sky-staring we packed up our cameras, flasks and supplies and headed back. Back home I gave it another twenty minutes or so, but there really wasn't much going on, so I turned in...
<BR>
<BR>... and now, after several radio interviews I think I can safely say that the show is over. No "storm" fom the UK - well, from my part of the UK anyway - but it was fun to watch nonetheless, and I had good company, including a "First timer" who'd never seen a meteor shower before, and her enthusiasm was nice to share and be warmed by.
<BR>
<BR>Hope everyone out there saw at least *something*. If not, never fear, it'll soon be time for the mid-December Geminid shower - and the Moon won't be a problem.
<BR>
<BR>Stu</FONT></HTML>

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Received on Tue 19 Nov 2002 08:10:31 AM PST