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(meteorobs) Leonids

What a night. Unbelievable/ I am still trying to get over it.  I am from
Tulsa, OK Astronomy Club of Tulsa, David Stine.  Several of our members
decided not to stay in Tulsa as the skys were completely clouded over.  So
we watched the iinteractive satellite and found a clear opening in Amarillo,
Texas.  Off we went about 5:30p.m.  We traveled through rain and alot of fog
and we were getting very nervous when it was still lingering fog in Amarillo
when we arrived at 11p.m.  We decided to drive toward the Palo Dura Canyon,
but it was completely fogged over.  We headed back west and got out along
side the car and saw 4 Leonids immediately withing 15 minutes.  We decided
to go farther south and west.  We stopped at Canyon, Texas and got some
directions.  We started out again about 3:10a.m.  As we were driving West,
people in the SUV starting seeing Leonids from out the window,  It was WOW
look at that and Oh My God did you see that, and even the driver saw several
tthrough the front window.  It was time to pull over by a country road.  As
we stepped out of the car about 3:30a.m.  a blazing -8Mg. Leonid came
blasting across the sky leaving a train for almost 5 minutes.  Then another
and nother, they just kept coming.  At times there were 5-10 at a time and
many left trains -4 to -8Mg.  Some high 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.  Unbelievable.  What a night.  Thanks for dark Texas
skies.  No one in Tulsa saw this as it was cloudy all night.  We will never
forget this night.


David Stine
Observing Chairman Astronomy Club of Tulsa
Comet - 1
dstine@exposquare.com

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