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(meteorobs) Informal Observations

Hello Everyone:

I decided to send this now during the lull......please forgive me,
because I want to share this with all of you, and this was not a formal
observing session by any stretch of the imagination.

I live south of Hamilton, Ontario, between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario on
the strip of land called the Niagara Peninsula . Southern Ontario was
supposed to be cloud-free all night, so I went to bed just after dark to
catch some sleep, planning to get up around midnight and start
photographing at 1 a.m. Unfortunately, the entire peninsula was socked
in by fog starting about 10:30 p.m., so when I got up, I spent over 2
hours at the computer trying to find a clear spot to flee to.

By the time I gave up at the computer, and loaded my gear into the van,
it was after 3. I drove to a spot of higher elevation about 15 minutes
from my house....fog.  I drove south to the Lake Erie shoreline....fog.
Just after 4:00, I called home, got Mike out of bed and had him tune
into Weather Radio Canada (162.475 MHz). It said fog almost everywhere,
but Buffalo and Erie Pa. were clear. So out of desperation I drove
towards Buffalo. I was more than an hour away and I knew I wouldn't make
it in time for the peak, but I had to do *something*.

At 4:50 a.m., I arrived at the outskirts of Ft. Erie, which is the last
town on the Canadian side of the border before the bridge across the
Niagara river to the U.S. side.  There was so much fog on the way there,
the road was wet and I had to use the windshield wipers.  I thought,
"there's no way it's gonna clear up enough to see anything". But about
this time, I stuck my head out the window while I'm driving, and lo and
behold, there were now some STARS showing through the fog!  And then
some flashes lighting up the fog, like lightning in the
distance....ohmygosh, those must be METEORS!!!  I drove for a bit more,
found the first side road leading away from the highway, stopped, and
jumped out.  It was happening!  4:58 a.m. and I counted easily 10
meteors in the first 30 seconds.  The sky was about 60% clear by now. I
ran to get my two cameras out of the van, and set them up in the dark
while I watched, not wanting to miss anything.  Every direction I
looked, there were spits of light. I was thrilled, to say the least. In
one (approx.) 30 second period while I was exposing a shot, I counted 14
meteors; in another 17.  I saw four dim meteors travelling the same
direction in a cluster!  Several times I saw 3 or 4 meteors within just
a few seconds. I checked the clock; 5:09.

Not having seen this kind of Leonid peak before, I was impressed with
the brightness of the meteors I was seeing.  I had expected them to be
numerous but dim, but instead most of the ones that I saw rivaled the
Perseids (that I am more experienced in) for brightness, but their paths
were, on average, shorter than a typical Perseid. Most were a bluish
white, but I saw some orangish ones too, and numerous ones that left a
train that lasted a few seconds.

The fog moved back in, I threw my equipment in the van and went further
east. More pics, then fog again, and then another move south to a place
where (finally) the sky was almost completely clear. Just fog at the
horizons.  Here I stayed for a short while until the sky brightened,
much to my dismay, for the Leonids were still going on at a rate of 2 or
3 bright ones per minute.

I will post successful photos, if any, at the link below early next
week.  I am very thankful that I didn't give up, and that I had the
opportunity to experience this. Good luck to the rest of you on the
other side of the globe who await the next peak, the BIG one!!!

Debbie Kinloch
York, Ontario
 http://www.parrotscanada.com/photography/photos.html

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