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(meteorobs) Re: NWM1999Nov17/18 observing site
Terry noted that I failed to make clear where I was observing from. It was
my usual area in Lehigh Acres, Florida. 22 miles inland from Fort Myers in
an undeveloped spot. Lat 26.5N, long 81.5W. For what it's worth, elevation
is about 20 feet. The name "Lehigh" was coined from the combination of
being in Lee County on high ground. Most of Lee County is below 10 feet
elevation. I am very fortunate in the age of permanent manmade twilight
to be able to reach skies routinely LM7.0 to 7.4 with only a 35-minute
drive. Probably half a magnitude comes from excellent eyesight. My
strategy 20 years ago was to pick a small city well-removed from large ones
to be able to see the sky at night. The key here is being halfway between
Miami and Tampa combined with looking out over 100 miles of Everglades.
Fort Myers is on the lower SW coast of Florida.
The site I had used from 1988 to a couple of weeks ago had to be abandoned
this month. Houses began appearing around there starting in early 1997,
each one as usual with a light. A really bad one was put up right in the
corner of the mostly undeveloped neighborhood with not one, but two of the
typical bad lights. I could still use my site but when standing up the
lights were visible only 3 blocks away. But the final straw is a house that
sprang up only a block away right outside the entrance to the cul-de-sac I
was in. Was out there two hours that final night before noticing the new
house. So I have returned to the previous site half a mile away, another
cul-de-sac but with a much poorer gravelly paving surface, used 1980 to
1988. This neighborhood remains totally free of houses. The site has a
slightly less favorable horizon due to more and larger pine trees but still
I can see down to 5 - 10 degrees elevation almost all directions. The trees
have grown a lot in the 11 years I wasn't going there, and now they are
numerous enough to block off all distant lights. Even the highway traffic
is completely screened out. The sky remains excellent.
Norman
Norman W. McLeod III
Staff Advisor
American Meteor Society
Fort Myers, Florida
nmcleod@peganet.com
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