(meteorobs) Leonids not spectacular

[Malcolm J. Currie]

Brief report from Grove, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

Once cirro-stratus had cleared around November 19 02h UT (the forecast
had been for clear skies all night) I was able to operate a Mintron
camera 6mm f/0.8 lens until dawn, as I'd done the previous night.  The
conditions were excellent for the UK with LM 6.8 (6.7 on 17/18).  The
camera LM was about 0.25 mag brighter than the visual LM, until after
06h local time when the video could record for another half hour in the
twilight, and at one point the visual LM was about +4, but the video
camera was seeing to near +5. This reminded me how well these cameras
worked during bright-moon conditions for the 2002 Leonids.

Meanwhile concurrent telescopic observations with a 127-mm refractor
(x20, 2.6-degree field) didn't show any obvious burst of Leonid activity
around the expected time of the outburt.  As the typical apparent meteor
magnitude seen is +10, this may have been too faint, whereas a small
binocular might have been ideal to capture the faint Leonids.

I did notice a couple of bright flashes, presumably Leonid fireballs,
and glimpsed another one on camera on 17/18 seconds after
switching on the setup, during a test phase; sadly the VCR wasn't
running.

Malcolm Currie