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(meteorobs) Observations from SE California



Hi,
I, too, come out of the woodwork when something special is happening in the 
sky. Wish my workload allowed more time for viewing, but at least I got one 
night. I sent this back on the 19th, but maybe it got gobbled up like some of 
the other e-mail, so I'm sending it again:

Here's our version of another S. Cal Leonid Odyssey 11/17-18:

Hoping against hope that the peak might be delayed and we on the West coast 
might get a treat, I checked every Internet weather & satellite site. It was 
obvious that the western portion of California was totally blanketed with 
clouds. Reports indicated a clear evening at Joshua Tree National Park in the 
SE section of CA. So off we went from Los Angeles at 4pm, only to see 
continuing cloud cover all the way into the middle of Joshua Tree. So we 
headed further east. It wasn't until we approached the Arizona boarder at 
Blythe, that it cleared up--and was much warmer. Now the problem was lights. 
We ended up winding around old farm roads and irrigation ditches until we 
found some semblance of darkness at 1:30am Nov 18th. My astronomy buddy, Stu 
(73 yr.), was so beat from driving the entire distance, he fell asleep 
shortly after viewing the biggest meteor he had ever seen--so he was happy.

The sky was clear and the Milky Way was brilliant. As I stepped out of the 
car I viewed the best sighting of the evening. A bright white one with a 
wide, short tail that persisted about 5 sec. I observed from 1:30am to 5am 
PST. I had a little downtime, mainly to futz with the camera, grab a bite and 
occasionally suffer from overweight eyelids.

In that 3 1/2 hour period I counted 53 meteors, one satellite and a pack of 
howling animals--what I don't know--coming from the tree down the road that 
scared me to death. I'm glad I wasn't out there alone this time, even if my 
buddy was sleeping.

My highest rate was 20 per hour at the peak between 2 & 3am. There were only 
three meteors of any significant size or brightness, looking much like the 
one mentioned above. The tails were short, none that covered more than 35 
degrees across the sky. The rest were faint. I also noticed a number 
traveling in and around Orion.  I managed to get six on film(2 on one pic), 
but they are quite faint. A pretty paltry showing after that wonderful 
display of fireballs I saw last year in Frazer Park, CA.  I agree with B. 
Yen,  "Even last year's Geminids had better meteors recorded on film."

I did get a report from a friend in Costa Rica that he observed an 
earthgrazer in the early morning on 11/17 at approx. 3:30 CST. It was bright 
blue with a very wide tail. It traveled a short distance parallel to the 
horizon toward the Southwest.

Location, location, location! Anybody making plans for a tour to Asia next 
year? I hear the forecast for the shower is even better for the peak than 
this year.

Wishing you all clear skys & dark nights,
Cindee McCallister
Los Angeles, CA

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