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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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