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(meteorobs) Leonids Over Southern New Jersey

     From 1:50 a.m. to 2:37 a.m. EST I counted 54 Leonids (and 5 non-Leonids)
in a sky mostly free of clouds (zenith limiting magnitude maybe as good as
6.0), then in final 13 minutes of the hour with less and less clear sky
(almost none at end) another 13 Leonids.  During the hour there were three
Leonids which apparently cast shadows and about 5 or 6 lesser fireballs.  One
of the brightest flashed off and on like lightning as it passed high in the
north.  Only a few Leonids left trails which lingered for duration in the 10
to 20 second range (as if that's bad!), but one was visible to the naked eye
for 8 or 9 minutes!  It was within the pentagon of Auriga as seen from here
(about 5 miles east of Millville, NJ) the entire time, its brightest part
going from a kink to an upside-down U at about 1 minute, a roughly 1 1/2
degree by 1/2 degree ring at about 2 minutes, two puffs or lobes connected by
a fainter area at 3 to 5 minutes, and two faint sections of a 5 or 6 degree
long arc drifting west at 6 to 8 minutes.
     There were one or two lulls with only 1 or 2 Leonids in 5 minutes, but
also a case of 3 Leonids in 5 seconds (and 5 in 30 seconds) and a few other
times when there were 3 or 4 Leonids in 10 to 30 seconds.  Colors of most of
the bright Leonids was bright yellow but a few were blue, including one of the
very brightest.
     A solid cloud deck rolled in--but time to check the sky again!
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