(meteorobs) Leonids from France (1466 trail outburst)

[Karl Antier]

Hi all meteor observers,

After a tiring week, I tried to observe the two first predicted
peaks of Leonids (00h22m UT, Mikhail Maslov and 01h32 UT, Jeremie
Vaubaillon).
At first, I wanted to make a real observng session, but seen my
state of tireness (I manage to fall asleep under freezing temperatures
and a strong blowing mistral), I only decided to stay awoken as much
time as possible only on the Valensole Plate (Provence, SE France)...
At the time of the first predicted peak, the radiant was not very
high, but I did not notice a real enhancement of the activity, which
was quite low since the rise of the radiant.
A few minutes before the expected peak predicted by Jeremie Vaubaillon,
no enhancement was observed, so I feared my efforts would be useless
(oh, non, not useless, as a negative observation isn't uselee...).
But suddenly, at 1h28 UT, three LEO appeared within 10 seconds!
Not very bright, but quite surprising! And suddenly, the outburst began!
I observed until 1h50 UT, and my observation seem to divide the
outburst into three different parts (or at least two). Hope some of you
who manage to catch it can express what they observed.
t < 01h28 UT : quite low activity of the Leonids, reinforced by the presence
of the Moon (lm ~ 5.8-5.9). FOV in Cassiopeus/Perseus. Moon masked.
01h28 UT < t < 01h32 UT : huge enhancement of the activity. 8 LEO observed
within the four minutes. Meteors not very bright, but numerous.
01h32 UT < t < 01h38 UT : slowing down in the activity. 7 LEO observed within
6 minutes. Brighter meteors, seen closer to the horizon.
t > 01h38 UT : decrease of the activity, but meteors still bright and seen close
to the horizon.
Hope it will help a bit while waiting for better information. Really sorry for
not having been able to produce more "scientific" data...

Now, I'll wait for observations of the next predicted peak, next night!
Good luck to all!
Karl