[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
(meteorobs) Leonids observation 11/17,18 from Manassas, VA
Another spectacular night in Virginia! The skies were clear again and
excellent LM for Manassas, VA, ..LM = 5.2. I observed from 12AM - 4:30AM
(5:00 - 9:30UT), Teff = 4.0 hrs.. The Leonids started slowly as the
radiant rose. I also had much light pollution facing East. By about
7:30UT, the Leonid rates started to pick up. The period 8:00 to 9:00UT
showed 26 LEOs with two 1 minute periods which had 4 and 3 LEOs
respectively. There we two occasions with multiple trails visable. My Zhr
computation shows a Zhr of 110. The Leonids remained active until I
stopped viewing. There were no fireballs, but six with 2 to 5 second
trails. Most were near the radiant, white, and very fast. The highlight
of the evening was a sporadic bright green -4 fireball at 5:07UT.
I did see one unusual sight that I would invite comment on. At about
8:00UT, I saw what I first thought was an airplane heading SW. It was
larger that any satellite I have seen and slower than any meteor I have
ever seen and no tail. The color was not typical for an airplane, a dark
orange. The really unusual part was, after it passed overhead, I observed
two small triangular shapes of the same dark orange color touching, at the
sides, and trailing the main object. They sort of looked like what you
would image as engine output. There was also a very faint low pitch rumble
trailing the object, again similar, but deeper pitch than an airplane.
More detailed report on the meteor observation forthcoming.
Stephen
To UNSUBSCRIBE from the 'meteorobs' email list, use the Web form at:
http://www.tiacdot net/users/lewkaren/meteorobs/subscribe.html
Follow-Ups: