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(meteorobs) Leonids, Nov 15/16 and 16/17, GRALE
For those who prefer their meteor data in "Reader's Digest" form, or who
HATE reading about deep-sky, here were my numbers from this weekend:
Date UT LM Teff F LEO NTA STA N/S? SPOR Total
Nov 15/16 0740-0915 7.20 1.43 1.0 15 1 2 1 25 44
Nov 16/17 0645-0905 7.43 2.33 1.0 57 5 3 2 18 85
This works out to rough (uncorrected) hourly rates of 10 LEOs/hr and 17
SPORs/hr on Nov 15/16, and 25 LEOs/hr and 8 SPORs/hr on Nov 16/17. Quite a
variance in SPORs! Coincidentally, I noted a number of meteors that
appeared to radiate from the CMi/Mon area on both nights. But only in
reading Norman's report did I realize I had stupidly forgotten to watch for
the Alpha-Mons this weekend!
Re: meteor colors, I also noted predominantly orange color this weekend in
meteors bright enough to see it. What was unusual for me was the frequency
of "orange color mix" meteors and trains, though: I actually noted at least
one meteor as orange-blue, in addition to the usual orange-yellow and
orange-greens. Also saw several blue-white and "electric blue" fireballs.
But unlike Graham, NOT all my bright fast meteors this weekend were lower
on the spectrum: I saw a number of Leonid fireballs with oranges, yellows,
and greens, and even had my first hint of red since reactivating myself
last Spring!
By the way, Tom Ashcraft and Jim Richardson should feel free to poo-poo
this as nonesense if that's what it is, but I thought I could track the
level of Leonid activity, both before and after dawn on Nov 16/17, based on
the reception we were getting of a New York City AM station - 400+ miles
morth of New York. This station was absent from the local airwaves on Nov
15/16, but was quite prominent in the early morning hours of Nov 17, with a
slight resurgence (because I was waiting for it) around noon (17UT) that
day. Any thoughts?
Also, of little scientific interest, but I saw more telescopic meteors (all
of them LEOs based on my naive impressions of apparent velocity at the
eyepiece) on Nov 16/17 than I have ever seen in one night. During
approximately 1.0 hours actual eyepiece time that night, in a 20" with
either 0.9 or 0.4 degree field and limiting mag somewhere below 15, I saw
five! This coupled with my visual observations these two nights lead me to
a question: is the mass distribution of the Leonids bimodal? I.e., many
faint AND many bright meteors, but few in between? I noted that for a
shower with r=2.5, the Leonids seemed to produce an extraordinary number of
fireballs this year!
Lew
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Karen Simmons & Lew Gramer lewkaren@tiacdot net http://www.tiacdot net/users/lewkaren
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