[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

(meteorobs) Report from Louisiana

Hi to all Leonid Observers, and meteor observers around the world...
 
We drove 380 miles to flee the clouds in Texas, there were 9 of us from The Houston Astronomical Society.
Thanks to the hospitality of the Ponchartrain Astronomy Society we had very good conditions,
for the Leonids, in eastern Louisiana. I estimate about 45 people were there to watch the show.
Some from Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and of course, Louisiana.
 
Individual Preliminary Report.
4 hours of observing Leonids under 5.6 to 5.7 magnitude Skies 90 degrees 11 minutes west longitude + 30 degrees  46'  32" latitude. 742 Leonids were counted on tape. 
 
Long Earth Grazers from 11:30 CST till 12:30 CST. They were mostly 1st magnitude, flying in parallel from east to west.
 
From 7 UT to 8 UT hourly count was 36 Leonids  (1 to 2 am local)
From 8 UT to 9 UT hourly count was 90 Leonids  (2-3 am local)
From 9 UT to 10 UT hourly count was 220 leonids (3 to 4 am local)
From 10UT to 10:30 Ut HALF HOUR count 241 Leonids (4 - 4:30 am local)
From 10:30 to 10:48 UT 18 minute Count 155 Leonids (4:30 to 4:48 local)
 
Count from then on was ceased due to strong Leonid activity, no matter what direction one
looked they were falling, despite increasing astronomical twilight to the east. One could not really make an accurate estimate.
I saw 10 at once looking west towards Orion where the sky was still dark.  While others were seeing similar activity looking north, or south. The zodiacal cone
was now going through Leo.  .
 
 After 11 UT (5 am) the activity slowed somewhat due to increasing sky brightness because of twilight. I continued to see Leonids while the sky was turning blue, as did others.
 
Many fireballs, though the amount did not approach the 1998 fireballs which I saw from west Texas under 6.8 magnitude skies.  There were several that were of the -8 category, and at least 2 bolides, which split and left enduring trains( though none of the 20 minute trains we saw in 1998). Some lit up the ground like strobe lights. A great mix of fireballs, and bright meteors with a number of fainter 3-4th magnitude, but mostly -1 to 2nd magnitude. A number of J shaped trains,  both right side up and up side down. 
 
10:12 - 10:14 - 23 Leonids
10:14 - 10:15 - 5 Leonids
10:16 - 10:18 - 16 Leonids
10:18 - 10:20 - 24 Leonids
10:24 - 10:27 - 40 Leonids
10:27- 10:29 - 12 Leonids
10:29 -10:30 - 12 Leonids
10:30 - 10:31  9 Leonids
10:31-10:33 - 17 Leo
10:33-10:35 - 28 Leo
10:32-10:33 - 17 Leo
10:33-10:35 - 28 Leo
10:35-10:36 - 6 Leo
10:36 - 10:37 5 Leo
10:37 - 10:39 24 Leo
 
The excitement was so apparent on my tape as activity increased with bursts of 4 to 6 at once, or maybe more, from about 10:21 UT.  A beautiful burst of 6 at once out of the radiant at 10:23 UT,  that had for a second or two  had  trains that made the radiant appear as a sunburst, or should I say star burst.  The peak seemed to occur near 10:24 UT or so.
 
it was so apparent that activity had increased dramatically at that point, it seemed to me to be quite a flurry, but not sustained bursts. Spits and flurries of 4 to 6 at once, then slowing down to 1 or 2 then up again.
 
The skies were not perfect, but an honest 5.7 magnitude at 50 degrees elevation, as haze rolled in from the east, high thin cirrus type, and obscured about 25 degrees at times, keeping the lower fainter meteors  from being see, but after the clouds of Texas......
 
Barbara Wilson
Houston Texas

 
 
 
 
Follow-Ups: