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(meteorobs) Leonids from Arizona

I have just come inside after viewing the finest meteor display in my over 35 years of actively watching the sky.  I observed the 2001 Leonids from Skywatchers Inn, just outside of Benson, Arizona.  The Inn is run by Dr. Eduardo Vega and his wife Pat and also includes his adjacent Vega-Bray Observatory.

I brought my family out to Skywatchers Inn and served as a guest lecturer and sky interpreter for Ed and Pat.  The Inn had a large Leonid party scheduled for Saturday night, November 17 into Sunday morning, the 18th, with over 60 invited guests and participants.

The Leonids put on a fabulous show.  I spent much of the time manning two 35 mm. cameras and making numerous exposures on Fuji 1600 film.  While I did not get into the "nitty-gritty" of making single observer counts, I present my first-hand impressions to you below.

First . . . the weather was not the best!  An upper level disturbance crossed from northwest-to-southeast, bringing a swath of high-level cirroform cloudiness across much of Arizona.  For us, in Benson, the high clouds stayed off to our west and north through 3 a.m. Mountain Time.  Unfortunately, between 3 and 5 a.m., we had to deal with the high cloudiness, which at times covered up to 70 percent of the sky.  Nonetheless, where skies were clear, we had excellent seeing and transparency with a limiting magnitude of at least 6.5.  Before the start of astronomical twilight, the Zodiacal Light was spectacular, appearing as a softly glowing and tapering pyramid of light extending up from Virgo through Leo.

Nonetheless, the high clouds could do little to detract from a spectacular Leonid show.  My initial "guesstimate" -- again I was preoccupied part of the time with photography --  is that the single observer rate was roughly 2 to 5 meteors per minute between 2 and 2:30 a.m. MST.  This rate increased noticeably to between 6 and 10 per minute between 2:30 and 3:00 a.m.  Between 3:00 a.m. and 3:45 a.m., we were seeing rates that easily were 10 per minute . . . probably more.  

A very sharp and distinct increase in activity was noted between 3:45 and 4:15 a.m., when meteors were coming at rates of one every second or two! This was most definitely the peak for us and ironically it was occurring during the time we were being plagued by the high cloud cover! Despite this, there were many times when we would see several meteors at once . . . sometimes paralleling each other.  They were dropping all over the place. Amazing!

The rates then appeared to decline back down to about 10 per minute by 5:00 a.m. MST . . . and it continued to persist at close to this rate right on into the morning twilight when I finally called it quits at 6:00 a.m. MST.  

The Leonids were, to say the least, very bright . . . many fireballs and especially after 3:45 a.m., many bolides as well.  I must have missed at least five bolides, being alerted to them by virtue of the "pop" of their shadow-casting flashes on the landscape.  Many left long enduring trails of at least 30 seconds duration; some were plainly visible through the thin cloud cover.  I was able to follow one trail for nearly 10 minutes through 25 x 150 military binoculars (part of the Vega-Bray retinue of instruments).  They continued unrelentlessly on into the morning twilight.  

One person who had witnessed the 1998 "fireball shower" said that while the '98 display had brighter meteors, he preferred our 2001 shower because of the greater frequency of the bright fireballs and bolides.  

All told, a magnificent display!
Now . . . to bed!  :)
-- joe rao
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