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Re: (meteorobs) November 17/18 Leonids (Ontario, CAN) - narrative report

Hi Pierre,
    I enjoyed your descriptions of your several Leonid
earthgrazers.  It reminded me of the one my friends
and I saw from St. Augustine during the 1974 Leonid
outburst.  We were all new to meteor observing then
and didn't realize the significance of the meteor we
saw that night (16/17 November, around midnight). We
were plaqued with intense ground fog, and a very thick
patch was moving thru and had blotted out the stars. 
We were gazing skyward and praying for a break when we
saw it!  It was a Leonid grazer that crossed almost
THE ENTIRE SKY!!  (At least 120 to 150 degrees) in an
incredible skipping motion.  Each skip (at least 4 or
5 of them) got brighter and brighter each time and the
final one must have registered near -7 to -8!!!  It
lit up the ground fog (several times succesively) and
was the only thing visible in the sky at the time.  It
took us quite a while to recover from that!!!  Looking
back on it now, I realize that it must have held
fireball brightness during almost all its long track
across the sky. Never seen anything near like it since
(even in 1998).  Thanks for bringing back this
incredible memory!  It finally cleared that night and
we went on to see over 40 an hour from the Ls in
perfect conditions!  Beginner's luck!  Paul
--- Pierre Martin <p.martin@mail.cyberusdot ca> wrote:
> Here's my report about the amazing night with the
> 2000 Leonid 
> outburst as seen from eastern Ontario...
> 
> I was determined to do whatever I could to catch
> this year's Leonids 
> despite the bright moonlight and generally poor
> November weather. The 
> evening of November 17 initially did not look
> promising at all for 
> any kind of Leonid observing effort here. As Joe Rao
> pointed out, all 
> of eastern Ontario would be plagued by Lake effect
> cloud cover 
> resulting in broken overcast skies at best, unless
> one was willing to 
> travel down south. The local forecasters were barely
> more optimistic 
> calling for variable clouds and chance of flurries.
> The GOES-8 
> satellite showed no hope whatsoever except for a
> tiny sucker hole 
> just south-west of Ottawa that would probably come
> and go quickly.
> 
> The temperature plunged down to -3C in mid-afternoon
> and strong winds 
> pushed the windchill factor down to -7C! Soon after
> suppertime that 
> evening, the sky outside my window was 100%
> overcast, without any 
> breaks. Weather reports also had scattered snow
> flurries and ice 
> pellets in some areas. I grumbled.. "Another
> washout"...
> 
> Then I got a call from local amateur astronomer Mike
> Wirths who said 
> he currently had 90% clear skies at his place about
> 90km south-west 
> of Ottawa. I had doubts, but decided to pack the car
> and head out to 
> his place anyway. Quick glances out the windshield
> along the way 
> revealed nothing but low clouds moving fairly
> quickly from the west. 
> As I pulled my car beside his observatory near 10 PM
> EST, I noticed 
> much to my delight that the sky was crystal clear
> and all full of 
> stars! So I assembled my portable coffin, got my
> meteor gear together 
> and setup on a flat field beside Mike's observatory.
> I scrambled to 
> get the coffin assembled, and added on multiple
> layers of winter 
> clothing as if an ice age was upon us. Setting up in
> the dark was 
> somewhat frustrating as I kept fumbling and droping
> things all over 
> the ground. Equally frustrating was not knowing how
> long the sucker 
> hole would last and whether I was going through all
> this trouble for 
> nothing. At least the wind died down completely and
> that alone made a 
> big difference despite the freezing temperatures. I
> noticed one of 
> Mike's cat jump in my car and get all comfortable
> into my meteor bag 
> to try and warm up.
> 
> I signed-on just before 11:00 PM EST to try and
> catch some of the 
> activity near the predicted 10:44 PM peak. Several
> spectacular 
> earthgrazers appeared!! Even with the radiant only 3
> degrees over the 
> eastern horizon, it was obvious that some fairly
> high activity was in 
> progress. It took only 16 minutes to see the first
> Leonid grazer. 
> With the radiant just 3 degrees over the eastern
> horizon, the 2nd 
> magn meteor shot some 40 degrees accross the zenith.
> Then 14 minutes 
> later, a most impressive ORANGE coloured Leonid
> grazer of magn 0 
> split the sky in half... it travelled 70 degrees!!
> However, the one 
> that appeared at 11:55 PM blew me away... A
> multi-coloured magn -2 
> Leonid grazer that shot 40 degrees. It went from
> vivid blue to green 
> to yellow to orange before it extinguished and then
> a 3 sec train was 
> left behind. This was definitely the most beautiful
> meteor of the 
> night! Before stopping for a break at midnight, I
> saw 7 more Leonids 
> and many of those were colourful and travelled long
> lengths. Although 
> Leonids were the main attraction, I also monitored
> the minor showers 
> such as Taurids and Alpha Monocerotids. A
> particularly nice South 
> Taurid of magn -1 was seen moving down slowly in
> Orion. It did not 
> have any train at all and appeared nearly pure
> white.
> 
> After this first successful hour, the sky was still
> 100% clear... so 
> far so good! Took a break for 1/2 hour at midnight.
> I organized my 
> gear more properly, fueled up on donuts and hot
> chocolate, and rested 
> my voice from yelling "oooohhhh!!!" so much :) . It
> wasn't until I 
> got out of my coffin that I realized how much frost
> there was 
> already! Everything was dry and warm inside my
> coffin so this kind of 
> wind shelter makes a big difference. After a quick
> peak through 
> Mike's 18" scope, I noticed Leonid activity on the
> rise so I hurried 
> back inside the coffin to resume observations. Mike
> and Attilla both 
> went for a nap and would wake up to check out the
> predicted 2:51 EST 
> peak. Despite the bright Quarter Moon, I could still
> see nearly 6th 
> magnitude stars under transparent conditions. I had
> my field of view 
> facing south and then to the west to avoid the
> Moon's glare.
> 
> The second hour (00:32-1:32 AM EST) had quickly
> increasing Leonids 
> rates to near one per minute. Many meteors were
> coloured blue, yellow 
> and orange. The brighter ones almost always left
> behind short lived 
> trains. The highlight in this hour was a nice mag -3
> orange Leonid 
> low in the south-east.
> 
> The third hour (1:32-2:36 AM EST) began with 1 or 2
> Leonids per 
> minute. Most meteors were now on the faint side with
> an occasional 
> bright one zipping by. Leonids began increasing
> quickly to 3 per 
> minute shortly after 2:00 and I could feel my heart
> pounding faster. 
> I also got my camera running and hopping some bright
> meteor would go 
> in the frame. Sometimes a number of Leonids would
> appear within a 
> very short time. At 2:02, I got 5 Leonids all within
> 10 seconds. 
> Another burst at 2:11 had 4 Leonids within only 2
> seconds! At this 
> point, I felt we were getting close to a peak so I
> began yelling... 
> "ATTILLA, LOOK UP!!!!!..(no answer)..
> ATTILLA!!!!???? ATT..." Then I 
> remembered he was probably still napping inside the
> observatory's 
> heated room and couldn't hear me yelling. Around
> 2:30, Leonids were 
> coming down furiously at rates of 4 and sometimes 5
> per minute. There 
> were more instances of quick bursts of activity that
> had me screaming 
> out their magnitudes into my tape recorder as fast
> as 

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