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(meteorobs) Report from E Central KS for Leonids
Our report for the premax and max nights. Weather was a major disruption
for the 2001 Leonids in the center of the USA.
Premax night was stay put night in Overland Park KS. I spent 45 minutes
in two 20 and 25 min. periods watching from 145 to 245 am, and saw NO Leonids
on that night, Nov 16/17. I saw 2 (1 N & 1S) Taurids, 1 sporadic originating
in Auriga,
and 4 other sporadics with a zs. of 5.2 or so.
This activity level did not result in observing any more that night, after a
difficult work week having just ended. My dad, 70 from 34 miles E of us in
W Central Missouri (Lone Jack, MO), on night of Nov. 15/.16th saw 5
Leonid grazers watching N of due East near the big dipper, also in 45 minutes
from 1240 to 125 am. (FRI am).
The following morning, Sat, and on thru the early evening hours were ones
of great anguish and disappointment on the weather/cloud front. The stagnant
upper level low that had been haunting the SW for days was on the move, OUR
WAY! First was the plan to drive to the S region of Illinois, at 11 am that
looked good, quick 2 hour nap and more computer assisted cloud diagosis.
Close one!.
Turned cloudy quickly all thru S Missouri and exploding into Illinois. We
watched
and waited. At dusk in Overland Park there was an enormous gap with deep blue
sky covering the western sky, it was to be the last one for nearly 6 hours.
The upper level low remained to the SW of me, near the Oklahoma panhandle.
Final two hour nap, up at 1240 am, determined to have a run in some direction
with
my daughter and fiancee if any possible holes were developing. Outside back
of
our home is an empty field with broad view across the SW sky. From 1245 to
105
am with 30-60 loud cover, and a 5 min. break to wake everyone up to get
ready
to run for it, I observed 5 Leonids, a 2, 1, -1, 0, & -1, the first three
trained, a mag.
2 sporadic, and a mag. 3 Northern Taurid. Improvement over the night before,
for sure!
The hole closed rapidly, and the sky was filled with mostly S to N moving
cumulus
clouds. A final 20 minutes of anguish on infrared satellite imagery, I
deduced a
separation approx. 3 counties wide shoving N ward from Wichita KS, about
2 or 3 counties away still to the W and SW of me. We had the car gassed and
loaded with our observing stuff and took off Westward at approx. 200 amish.
58 miles from the SW side of the KC metro area near Homeland, KS in the
northern-most reaches of the Flint Hills grasslands of KS we climbed a steep
hill off Interstate I-35 about a mile N of the highway, and rapidly set up
observing
during what was to be an altogether too quick shutoff by clouds just forming
directly on top of us at 410 am.
What we saw, while not as huge of a report as we wished to send in, was
the most powerful shower I have ever seen in my life, and 25+ yr.s of
observing.
My daughter nine also observed and made counts, while my fianee Jill Bailey
spent the valuable time recording information that enabled Ashley and I to
make
accurate counts.
We watched and made the following counts, facing Orion/Gemini early, forced to
observe N and NE after the 345 cut=off of official counts.
255-305 am (0855-0905UT) - Ashley - 26 Leonids, 4 Sporadics (one of these
might be a Taurid!) Bert - 22 Leonids, 3
Sporadics, 2 Taurids (1 N one is unknown), and another sporadic origination
tracing thru Northern Auriga.
305-315 am (0905-0915UT) - Ashley - 30 Leonids
Bert - 27 Leonids, 2 Spor.
315-320 am (0915-0920UT) - Ashley - 21 Leonids
Bert - 23 Leonids
This was the start of what appeared to us to be intensifying action.
320-330 am (0920-0930UT) - Ashley - 29 Leonids
Bert - 35 Leonids, 1
Sporadic, yet another
sporadic rapidly moving out of Auriga.
At 330 am a noticeable power increase that continued thru about 350 am or so,
then up again in rates till be lost sight of meteors after 4 am.
Last extended count time -
330-345 am (0930-0945UT) - Ashley - 41 Leonids, 5 Sporadics
Bert - 54 Leonids, 1 Sporadic
during this count we saw two -3 Leonids, both yellow, both trains lasted
over 10 seconds. A -4 leonid, colorless to me, streaked down the western
sky and terminal burst with a lingering maybe 20+ sec. train as the best one
seen. We also, like alot of reports, report distant flashes of light on the
horizons,
sometimes brightening the whole quadrant of sky it's direction was in, and
presumed
they were fireballs we could not see miles away.
Figuring I had more time to observe, we took a quick break and ran down to
car for more blankets and as quick as we broke into clear skies the trouble
was
to arrive quickly. The last notes we had were 11 Leonids for me at 355 am in
30
seconds, at 406 with sky fog rapidly killing us we saw 13 and 10 Leonids
respectively
at 407 I saw 8 Leonids, with a couple of negative magnitude burners nearly
straight up looking large and fuzzy thru the low cloud deck before we just
lay there comprehending what we had just seen.
The z.s. was 6.2 during our official counts., the meteors rivaled the
Perseids at
their best on a meteor per meteor basis, lots of mag. 0, 1, & +2 meteors, it
was a bright avg. mag., and they were very bland on the color for sure.
The 1980 or 81 Perseids are the only show I have seen that I could put in this
level of activity, where I was in the high 100's an hour for the last couple
b-4 dawn
on max.
We are delighted that many of you got to see and report the shows you
witnessed, and hope interest in this type of astronomy benefited as a result
of
last weekends show. Now about those Geminids.........my best meteor ever
was a -11 Geminid, and I have a -6 with a 10 min. train to go with
it......we're
looking forward to them. Also a fair amount of earthgrazer action very early
in
the evening from them, too.
I read the reports from Asia about the Aurigid activity in years past and
was keeping an eye out, and the 3 I saw were Lyrid or faster in velocity,
less slightly than Leonids, and I would say were eminating from
the northern side of the constellation, several degrees from Capella. I did
NOT make an exact note of the radiant area years previous and it will
be interesting to see if this might have been related.
One of my sporadics was a mag 1 or 0 Northern Apex, it was interesting because
except for its askew origination from S of the Leonids, it was identical to
the
typical leonid, including being trained. I had a headon bluish mag 0 Leonid
also, it was midway between Regulus and the upper star in the neck of Leo and
indicated early on in the session where the activity was coming from.
What is the moon situation on out in 2003 and 2004 for the Leonids????
Regards from KS,
Bert G Matous
Ashley D. Matous
Jill B. Bailey-recorder :-)
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