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(meteorobs) Leonids over UK: Nov 17th, 04.50UT
Hi All,
Just got back in from a brief look at the sky... and the show is still going
on..! Even though it's rather cloudy - not thick cloud, more like low, misty
stuff that's crawling across the sky, leaving tantalising gaps here and there
- the meteors are visible through the cloud, travelling very quickly, many of
them ending with terminal flares and bursts. I just saw three magnitude -7
fireballs in the space of 5 mins, and one amazing -9 or so fireball which
ended in a flare which lit up everything... even in the areas of sky
completely hidden by cloud there are flashes and busrst of light, making the
sky look like there's a WW2 artillery bombardment going on, unbelievable,
truly spectacular...
From my four hours or so of sky-staring I offer the following very
unscientific observations:
- Most of the Leonids I saw were streaking away to the right of the radiant,
but the brightest fireballs were visible near the Pointers of The Plough.
- There is a very, very large proportion of fireballs among the meteors, with
-4 being "average"!
- The meteors are travelling far, far quicker than I expected; if you think
you;re going to be able to follow them in binoculars, you're wrong, they're
faaaaaaaaaaaast!!!
... but I'm off to work soon, so I now pass the shower to all of you in the
US, and offer my best wishes for those of you in China and Japan waiting for
the expected peak.
Clear skies to you all my friends!
GO GET EM CHINA!!!!
Stuart Atkinson,
UK (with high hopes for tonight)
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