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RE: (meteorobs) results

We were kind of in your neighborhood.  I am from Tulsa and our skies were predicted to be clouded over, so we piled into a SUV and headed for Texas.  I saw on the satellite that it looked pretty good around Amarrillo.  We traveled through rain and alot of fog and I got a little nervous when it was still lingering fog in Amarrilo .  We drove to Palo Duro Canyon and got out but it was completly fogged over.  So we went back west about 10 miles and saw the most beatuiful Texas clear skies.  Within a minute we saw 4 Leonids and ended up counting 48 before the fog moved in.  This was about 2a.m.  WE made a decision to move farther west and get farther away from the canyon, wh ich turned out to be a wise decision.  We got back to Canyon, Texas and bought a few things and started west on 60 toward Hereford.  This was around 3a.m.  As we were driving West people in the SUV starting seeing Leonids from out of the window.  It was wow look at that and then even the driver could see some in the front window.  We hurried to find a spot, so we turned off the road and found an old country road and pulled off.  This was about 3:30a.m.  As we stepped out of the car, a blazing meteor came flying by leaving a 30 sec. train.  And another and another and we started counting.  The sky was beautiful and the meteors kept coming.  We counted by  the 15 minute sections, which I don't have but will get from our record keeper but they came in bunches.  At times there were 5-10 at a time,. unbelievable. Some high thin clouds started coming in at 5:15a.m., but we could still see the meteors flash behind the clouds and come out of the clouds into the clear areas.  When we stopped counting at 6a.m. we had counted 2011 meteors.  Oh what a night.  And thanks for the great Texas skies, dark and beautiful.  No one in Tulsa saw this, it was cloudy all nigght.  We will never forget this night.
 
David Stine
Comet - 1
Observing Chairman Astronomy Club of Tulsa
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-meteorobs@atmob.org [mailto:owner-meteorobs@atmob.org]On Behalf Of Tom Fleming
Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2001 11:48 AM
To: Meteor
Subject: (meteorobs) results

Hi gang!
 
We drove west from Dallas and set up south of Sweetwater off of I-20. We saw our first grazer at 12:06 cst and several more thereafter. Activity was biased towards the zero and neg magnitudes.  Activity was respectable - resembling the '98 shower on the 17th. Clouds rolled in about 2:30. We took a wild guess and headed back east. We found clear skies just west of Abilene for the main event. Meteors were rolling in, often clustered in groups of 3 to 7 or 8 in short bursts. Estimated rate adjusted to ZHR about 1500/hr. Like other observers we were seeing 10 to 20 per minute. Probably saw about 20-25 meteors in excess of the -4 to -6 range. And about a half dozen in the -7 to -10 range. One notable train lasted about a minute or so exhibiting atmospheric distortions. Most of the high negative magnitude meteors came in the late portion of the session. Clouds obscured our final emergency site at 5:30.
Tom
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