(meteorobs) Skunked again in Edmonton

[Bruce McCurdy]

Woke up Tuesday morning to a blue sky after doing hourly checks all night 
long to clouds, clouds, clouds. It was a beautiful day here in Edmonton, +14 
C, shirt sleeves in November stuff. It was clear throughout the evening, but 
I decided not to go out until midnight or so to let the radiant get up a 
ways. Wouldn't you know but as I was packing my car the clouds rolled in, 
and fast, for the second night in a row. So once again I never turned over 
the ignition but monitored the situation on an occasional basis while 
catching up on some writing.

'Round about 3 a.m. there was a somewhat promising arch in the northwest and 
I ventured over to the school field to evaluate it. The school has glaring 
spotlights on its north- and south-facing walls -- the light spill from the 
latter trespasses into my front yard, a good city block away -- but the west 
wall has no lights, so I will sometimes lean on that wall in relative 
darkness. Occasional pedestrians will walk by and have not a clue that I am 
there in the inky shadows ... so much for security!

Anyway, no pedestrians at all at 3 a.m. except for me. I watched for half an 
hour or so as thin clouds gradually thickened in that apparent gap, quickly 
convincing me a car ride would be a wild goose chase. I saw one probable 
meteor of the type I call subliminal/subluminal, and finally got a real nice 
flash low in the WNW, brighter than Vega and Deneb so low negative 
magnitude, and unquestionably a Leonid.

So discounting the uncertain one, my count is just 1586 fewer than the 
number of Leonids I counted 8 years ago tonight. But I didn't get shut out. 
:)

Bruce
*****