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(meteorobs) Leonid fireballs galore! Nov 15/16 ZAYGE

Meteor/Leonid observations for the night of Nov 15/16, 1998
From Descanso, California, San Diego County

I just got back from the best meteor shower I've ever witnessed. I observed
from my descanso, calif. observatory under clear skies with bob lunsford. I
have a teff of about 7.5 hours and an LM near 6.0 for most of the night. I
plotted until about midnight and then just record data without plotting. I
recorded a total of 140 meteors. 77 were leonids, 31 N. Taurids, 2 S. Taurids
and 30 sporadics. But!! out of the 77 leonids I recorded 25 fireballs. I also
recorded a brilliant N. Taurid fireball with a magnitude of -12. I thought
that was gonna be the highlight of the night...but it didn't even come close.
The magnitudes of the leonid fireballs are as follows:
-3,-3,-3,-3,-3, -4,-4,-4,-4, -5,-5,-5, -6,-6,-6,-6, -7,-7,-7, -8,-8, -10, -12,
-12, -15

The trains lasted quite long for a lot of them. One -7 had a train last 30
seconds, then the other two -7's had trains lasting over 100 seconds each, one
of the -8's train lasted over 100 seconds as well. The -10 had a train last
4.5 minutes and the 
 -15 train lasted over 8 minutes. The -15 and a -12 had persistent trains that
were of magnitudes of around -8 for a few seconds it seemed. They snaked and
twisted all over the place. It was hard to keep count of their durations
because often another fireball would show up. The -15 occurred above and
behind us...the stars totally disappeared and the sky looked like daylight
blue for a second or two. It was pure old excitement. I wanted to go to the
bathroom, but didn't dare because I was afraid I would miss another fireball.
The strange thing about last nights activity, there were very little dim
meteors...that is those that were of around +3 or dimmer. Besides the
fireballs, I also recorded three that had magnitudes of -2 and 8 were of -1
magnitudes. I won't have time to do my report for a few days...but I bet my
mean magnitude will be around -3 or more? Never had this happen before. We
were caught completely off guard for this kind of activity the night before
the leonid maximum. I hope to be out there again tonight for the leonid
maximum...if the weather holds out? Now to get some shut eye...I might have to
do a road trip to an area in the desert near Yuma, arizona if that front comes
down like it might...got my toes crossed.
George Zay
Descanso, California
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