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(meteorobs) High activity over Ottawa!!!!!!!
Hi to all,
I just got back home, and here's a first quick overview of Leonids
peak night (Nov 17/18) over Ottawa, Ontario...
WHAT A NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Amazing as it may sound, the sky was completely clear near Ottawa
(Ontaro). I took a chance last evening and drove 80 km south-west of
Ottawa to Mike Wirth's observatory near the town of Perth. To me
disbelief, it was 100% clear with very transparent magn 5.9 skies.
Ok, I would have been happy with only an hour, but getting crisp
clear skies until dawn was something I never expected. All the low
clouds seemed to be stuck right over Ottawa, so I got lucky. It's too
bad many local observers missed this night as the forecasts did not
predict such an improvement in the weather!
The Leonids put on a spectacular display, with a very sharp peak near
7:45 UT. Maximum rates almost near storm level despite the bright
Moon. ZHR probably several hundreds per hour and maybe near 1000/hr
for brief periods of time. Many simultaneous meteors coming from all
directions!! Lots of faint stuff, but a number of bright meteors. Few
fireballs.
As for the earlier 3:44 UT peak, I did see many impressive colourful
earthgrazers shooting accross long lenghts in the sky...
impressive!!! Leonid numbers appeared high despite a very low radiant.
I'm working on an express report to send very soon to the IMO.
Hope many others saw this fabulous meteor display!
Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario
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