[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
(meteorobs) Leonids from Haleakala, Hawaii
Hi all -- back in Honolulu after 6 nights on Maui.
I observed the Leonids from the Maui Space Surveillance Site (how
appropriate!) atop Haleakala for 4 nights, 11/16-19, 1999. Mike Morrow and
I assisted Air Force Maj. Barry Tilton and Dr. Stu Clifton from NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center as part of the University of Western Ontario
effort to monitor the Leonids and provide rapid updates to the satellite
community. We operated two intensified video cameras, one feeding a Mac G3
running Peter Gural's MeteorScan 2.2 software. We provided hourly updates
of visual rates, and video rates as detected by MeteorScan to the Leonid
Environment Operations Center at MSFC.
We arrived on site on the evening of Nov. 13/14, and began checking out and
setting up equipment, and familiarizing ourselves with the software. I had
observed atop Haleakala 20 years or more prior, but the was my first return
visit since then. I had never visited MSSS before, and I was to find out
that it made for a VERY plush meteor observing site. The main mission at
MSSS, as I understand it, is tracking and imaging man-made objects in earth
orbit. Most of their activities are classified. We were issued security
pass cards that alowed us access to only those areas where we needed to be
- which was fine by me!
Our observing site was just a few meters northeast of the 1.2 meter dual
telescope dome. It operated in full auotmatic mode every night we were
there, swiveling from one location in the sky to another - very rapidly.
We were given access to two (heated!) rooms in the facility to set up and
store equipment - the video shop and an adjacent storage/passageway area.
We set up the video gear and the G3 in the video shop, which turned out to
be a handy place to work in, when you needed an extra patch cord, or a
spare monitor! Incidentally, there are some pictures of our activities on
the web at http://www.amsmeteors.org/mghawaii/leo99.html
Inside the facility we had access to the lunchroom, complete with
microwaves, refrigerator and TV, plus (and this is the best part, as those
experienced in making meteor obsevations in the field know) genuine
hot-and-cold running water RESTROOMS! The MSSS staff were very frindly and
helpful to us, and at least one was out with us on max night,
tripod-mounted camera at the ready. The greatest bonus for me was finding
that one of the communications supervisors at the site was an old friend of
mine from elementary school through high school!
The outside of the facility is of course under light discipline, with all
exterior illunination being dim and red.
The second night on site, November 14/15, was devoted to a dry run of
aligning and calibrating the cameras. After the initial success the night
before, we were taken by surprise to see the intensifiers being blasted by
some brilliant light source when we turned them to their pre-planned
pointing direction! After a bit of consternation, I saw an IR floodlight
mounted with a security camera pointed down on our pad from a corner of the
building. Our Gen III devices were being murdered by this floodlight!
Fortunately the site staff was able to point the camera and its flood light
the other way.
Then came the third night, and time to get to work. Our assigned
observation period was 0900-1500 UTC. The Leonid radiant did not rise
until about 1015 UTC, so we did not expect to see much before that. There
was little or no wind, so the 46-degree F temperatures at our 10,000-foot
high site was very pleasant, though certainly not the 70 - 80 F we are used
to at sea level. The LEOC christened us with the callsign "HULA" for our
reports! Below are my results for that night. I had to leave early,
quitting at 1200 UTC. After I left, we suffered a power bump at 1430 UTC,
and did not observe during that last half-hour of our window.
Visual observations, BEDJA, November 16 (UTC), 1999:
Sky conditions this night, and all succeeding nights were the same: no
clouds, and no obstructions to vision.
Date Begin End Teff LM LEO NTA STA SPO
11/16 0910 0955 0.75 6.0 0 1 0 3
11/16 1000 1055 0.917 6.5 0 1 0 4
11/16 1100 1155 0.917 6.5 1 3 1 5
Mag Distribution
SPO(12) +1(2) +2(4) +3(5) +4(1)
LEO(1) +3(1)
STA(1) +3(1)
NTA(5) +1(1) +2(1) +3(3)
The following night we arrived on site knowing that we would be observing
up until about 11 hours before the predicted max, but not knowing what to
expect. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the day crew at the site
had hooked us up to the site UPS... no more data loss due to power problems
for us! Camera calibration went smoothly, and we visual observers went to
work outside. The night turned out to be somewhat slow, with a maximum raw
visual rate of 9 Leonids from 1400-1455 UTC. My first Leonid of the night
was a lovely example, though, a 1st magnitude grazer that streched across
70 degrees of northern sky shortly after the radiant rose.
One minor difficulty was the volume of traffic coming up the summit road
after about 3:30 am local time (1330 UTC). One of the attractions offered
to tourists is a ride to the top of Haleakala for sunrise, followed by a
bicycle trip back down. The vehicles towing the bike trailers start
arriving about 3:30, and the sunrise-seekers seem to start arriving around
4:30. According to the MSSS crew, you don't want to start down AFTER the
bikers... it's very difficult to get around them on the twisting mountain
road.
Visual observations, BEDJA, November 17 (UTC), 1999:
Date Begin End Teff LM LEO NTA STA SPO
11/17 0900 0955 0.917 5.5 0 2 0 4
11/17 1000 1100 1.0 5.5 0 0 0 2
11/17 1100 1200 1.0 5.5 2 2 1 4
11/17 1230 1300 0.5 6.5 4 0 0 0
11/17 1310 1355 0.75 6.5 6 2 1 4
11/17 1400 1455 0.917 6.5 9 2 1 4
Mag Distribution
SPO(18) 0(2) +1(3) +2(5) +3(6) +4(2)
LEO(21) 0(2) +1(4) +2(3) +3(9) +4(3)
STA(3) +2(2) +3(1)
NTA(8) 0(1) +1(2) +2(2) +3(3)
As soon as we arrived on the third night, Nov. 17/18, we heard that the
0208 UTC peak had occured as predicted, with rates reported as 2,000-6,000
per hour! All we could hope for now was a secondary peak, and we were
rewarded, to some extent. After the moon set over the ocean far below at
1202 UTC, we had some reasonably dark skies, and saw a fair number of
Leonids, culminating in our maximum raw visual rate of 54 during our final
hour from 1400-1500 UTC. There was a sizeable crowd of in the national
park area at the summit, and we could hear them echoing our cries at the
sight of each bright Leonid!
Visual observations, BEDJA, November 18 (UTC), 1999:
Date Begin End Teff LM LEO NTA STA SPO
11/18 0900 0955 0.917 4.0 0 0 0 2
11/18 1000 1100 1.0 5.0 0 2 1 4
11/18 1100 1200 1.0 5.0 5 3 1 5
11/18 1200 1255 0.917 6.0 18 1 0 3
11/18 1300 1400 1.0 6.0 29 3 1 5
11/18 1400 1500 1.0 6.0 54 6 2 12
Mag Distribution
SPO(32) -3(1) 0(2) +1(4) +2(9) +3(11) +4(4) +5(1)
LEO(106) -1(3) 0(10) +1(21) +2(28) +3(31) +4(13)
STA(5) +2(2) +3(3)
NTA(15) 0(1) +1(2) +2(5) +3(5) +4(2)
Our final night was somewhat anti-climactic. We were out under a bright
moon until it set around 1250 UTC. Even after that, rates were low, both
SPO and LEO:
Visual observations, BEDJA, November 19 (UTC), 1999:
Date Begin End Teff LM LEO NTA STA SPO
11/19 0900 0955 0.917 4.0 0 1 0 4
11/19 1000 1100 1.0 4.0 1 2 0 3
11/19 1100 1200 1.0 4.5 1 1 0 2
11/19 1200 1300 1.0 5.5 1 2 1 4
11/19 1300 1400 1.0 6.0 2 2 1 4
11/19 1400 1500 1.0 6.0 4 0 0 2
Mag Distribution
SPO(19) 0(2) +1(4) +2(7) +3(4) +4(2)
LEO(28) 0(2) +1(2) +2(1) +3(4) +4(1)
STA(2) +2(1) +3(1)
NTA(8) 0(1) +1(1) +2(3) +3(3)
In the end, "Team Hula" was able to keep the video cameras up and gathering
data for almost all of the 24 hours we were assigned over the 4 days, and
provide supplemental visual observations during this time. The skies were
perfectly clear all night, each night, though we were plagued by brilliant
zodiacal light in the east after about 1400 UTC each night. All in all a
success, and a very enjoyable mission.
Aloha,
Jim Bedient
To UNSUBSCRIBE from the 'meteorobs' email list, use the Web form at:
http://www.tiacdot net/users/lewkaren/meteorobs/subscribe.html