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(meteorobs) Re: Leonid max in Florida+more
Lew had a few questions for me, followed with my answers.
>BTW, Norm, I never compared notes with you on that final burst of activity
>during the 10:00-10:50 period! Did you see any of the short barrages I logged
>during that 50 minutes?
I had some tight groups also, up to 5 in half a minute usually followed by
nothing for up to several minutes. None simultaneous, either. Leonids are
so fast it's hard to get 2 of them together, until you have rates beyond a
certain high level, naturally.
>Also, what was the time on your -6 fireball with 30
>second train? I had it as a -8, with 50 second train, being a little further
>South than you...
My -6 was at 435 AM EST (935 UT). I missed your -8. What was the color
on yours? Mine was about 30o up in the west, so out over the Gulf of
Mexico. Facing east with the clipboard held upright, I saw the paper turn
orange while looking at the sky. I didn't get within 50o of the fireball,
turning around, before it ended -- the intense orange was easily seen anyway.
>Clear skies for the GEMs, and thanks again for all your on-phone help! :)
Glad to help out.
>PS: Did Joan enjoy the show? How did it compare to last year for her?
She thought it was a nice show but obviously not as spectacular with the
lack of bright ones. I let her sleep the first 3 hours as she was not
rested before we went. Waited until something began to happen.
Our longest meteor of the night was at 315 AM EST (815 UT), a yellow +2m
sporadic coming straight out of the north running along the meridian.
Started 50o up N, ended 10o past the zenith, covered 50 degrees in 6
seconds! Joan got the last 4 seconds. This was an eventful meteor, with a
3-degree wake and nebulous envelope around the head for the first 4 seconds
; then it disappeared completely, then reappeared as just a moving streak
about 5 degrees long going for 2 more seconds. Probably the most unusual
one ever for Joan. It was too fast to be a reentry, plus the characteristic
orange color was absent.
Pierre wrote,
>This was the only method
>I found I could still keep up with average rates of 30-40/min during
>2:02-2:22. Even so, it was hard to keep up when simultaneous Leonids
>would flash all over the sky.
I don't know why the 1966 Leonids were appearing at very even intervals for
me at 30/min, but it sure made recording a lot easier. But I was in sky LM
only 5.8 so must have missed a bunch of fainter ones. And I had none
simultaneous then either.
Scott Bierly wrote,
>Subject: Massive Fireball in PA in 1963-1967 timeframe
>
>Is anyone aware of such an object? I witnessed this as a kid in PA, not
>sure exactly when (we moved away in summer 1967). At or after sunset,
>in my front yard, I recollect ...
When was the long fireball seen over the NE states in deep twilight around
then? I forget the year but 1967 in the fall comes to mind. It was the
first one I recall that somebody actually got a movie of, and it was shown
on national TV. The movie showed a breakup into numerous fragments moving
slowly in a procession. Direction was roughly south to north. But there
was no mention of sound as Scott described.
To wrap this up, I saw the nova in Aquila around 7 PM EST, Dec 2. Appears
mag +4, whole number only. Binoculars gave me a strong yellow color. I
called Robert Riefer in Lehigh Acres; he took the phone outside and found
the nova in a quarter minute as I described how to find it. Now let's root
for it to reach mag -5 and cast shadows.
Norman
Norman W. McLeod III
Staff Advisor
American Meteor Society
Fort Myers, Florida
nmcleod@peganet.com
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