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(meteorobs) Re: NWM 1966 Leonid storm night
Late evening of 1966 Nov 16 I went downstairs in the dormitory at Florida
State. Someone then informed me that a group of students had gotten wind of
a big meteor shower coming and that they were already up on the sun deck
observing. This being around 11 PM, I knew they were much too early as the
radiant was just below the horizon in the ENE. So I went to the sun deck
myself to witness the eager group waiting for action. I told them it was
too early and to wait until after 2 AM. But I doubt if anyone lasted long
enough to see anything ; it was nap time for me until 2 o'clock.
From Bob Lunsford:
>I was out on the morning of November 17, 1966 yet it was a few hours
>too early. Thinking the sky would be full of meteors I was unimpressed
>by the meteor that shot overhead every 10 seconds or so. A few months
>later I discovered what I had missed by going back to bed.
Bob's perception has always been about twice mine, so I will assume the time
he had this experience corresponds to the period in which my Leonid rate
reached 3/minute, which was right about 4:30 AM EST, or 1:30 AM PST where
Bob was. My rate of 6/minute didn't start until 5 AM. Magnitude-only
recording began at 5:03 AM, then without times after 5:19 AM. In the period
5:19 to 6:00 I recorded 361 meteors, finishing at about 30/minute as dawn
and fog combined to end the show. It was a very steady rain of meteors, one
each two seconds, with none simultaneous and no bunching seen. During that
40 minutes I saw two -5's and four -4's ; these acted like punctuation
marks within the display.
The following evening the local newspaper had a short article on the front
page headlined "Meteor Shower Fizzles." It was the usual confirmation
that the public needs a much stronger or brighter event than an astronomer
in order to be impressed. The peak came after sunrise ; it just couldn't be
observed. It was too foggy for the next few hours to try for daylight
Leonids, plus I was pooped. I was just thankful the fog held off until dawn.
Soon after that I thought about how sad it would be for new people to get
interested in meteors during 1967. I was born in 1946 and began meteors in
1960, so I was fortunate to have a few years experience in time for the 1966
Leonids.
From Bob:
>Regarding the actual 66 display, regardless whether the rates were
>150,000 or less per hour, it was definitely a stupendous display of
>astronomical fireworks! That much can be agreed upon.
Why not just make it clear that the observed rate was 40/second? That
generates the 150000/hr figure. Leonids tend to be brighter than average,
so about that rate should have been available in LM6.5 sky. I don't see any
reason to dispute the original numbers ; they did what they had to do to
reach a consensus on the peak rate. People not versed in ZHR's need not get
into that here, and are naturally interested in what was actually seen.
When can the first Leonid of the night be seen? In the previous epoch the
year 1974 had the last good display. I started observing at 10:16 PM EST
Nov 16/17, but the first Leonid didn't appear until 12:12 AM. It was an
orange +1m with 3-second train, but it went 120 degrees in 8 seconds ! I
judged the train by how long it took a point in the middle of the long wake
to vanish. The final hour that night had 40 Leonids, a total surprise. The
time to get the first meteor from a rising radiant looks similar to the Eta
Aquarids in May, when I had to wait every night about 40 or so minutes after
radiant-rise to see anything from it. A Leonid storm obviously ought to
produce something much sooner.
Norman