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(meteorobs) The Leonids are falling!
Greetings! This is a preliminary report of the Leonids as seen from
Manila, approx. 14.5 deg N, 121 deg. E, 24 hours before the nodal
crossing.
The Leonids are ROARING! GO out and
OBSERVE!
I went out at 3:40 a.m. local time (1940
UT), 24 hours before the expected peak, and boy, are the meteors flying
fast and furious - I have been observing about a third of the sky, my
northeastern part blocked by the house roof, but there were meteors and
fireballs aplenty. There were instances when there were 4
bright meteors per minute in a third of the sky. My limiting magnitude is
4 - 4.5 in the city (not bad, since rain in the evening washed away the
pollution). Had a good two hours of observations - the best meteor
observing for me ever!
Fireballs were there aplenty in white, greenish-white, and yellow
variations - I haven't had time to transcribe what I've taped but there
were instances of 3-4 meteors flashing by the same direction in the sky
in a span of 20 seconds. Highlights of the 2-hour observing session
(stopped when the clouds covered most of the sky and the sky started to
turn blue):
- a mag. -10 fireball that literally lit the sky! I was facing
south when my glasses and the surroundings lit up with an eerie
greenish-white light at ~4:23 a.m. I turned around to the north and
saw a very bright train diffusing across a cloud patch. The train
stayed there for about 20 seconds, and then faded into the cloud
patch. Had the cloud patch not been there, it would probably have
been visible longer. This fireball was moving north across the
front paws of Ursa Major.
- a pair of two parallel greenish-white fireballs (mag. -5), separated by
5 seconds, flaring to the north-northwest, about 20 deg. above the
horizon.
- three meteors in a span of 3 seconds: 2 mag. -3 white fireballs and a
fainter, mag. 2 yellow meteor all going south, again about 20-40 degrees
away from the horizon.
I'll need to transcribe my notes, but the Leonids are on the way to a
peak, and if today's show tells something about the peak a day later,
then we're in for quite a show.
And by the way, I also saw a bright white object (Iridium satellite?)
shining at mag. -3, and passing south in Auriga that stayed at this
brightness for about 4 seconds then quickly faded to obscurity.
As I'll be leaving today for Japan in a few hours, I'll be changing over
to my office e-mail at lao.fg@pg.com
Best of luck and clear skies!
Jun Lao
Public Relations Officer and
Editor, The Appulse Newsletter
Philippine Astronomical Society
Manila 14.5 N 121 E
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