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(meteorobs) Leonid report - narrative - Nov 16/17, Mt. Lemmon, AZ (ATAJU)
Hi!
Here's a narrative report for the Leonid pre peak night. Although lacking
strong activity it was a very enjoyable night! The sky was constantly at least
LM 6.9, progressing to LM 7.1 in the morning hours. Gegenschein was visible as
a 10x15 degree patch of light, the zodiacal band as a 5 degree wisp of light
running along the ecliptic, while the 100 degree zodiacal light was bright
enough to cast shadows! That's some of the best sky I'd ever seen! The light
from Tucson was confined to 20 degrees in the southwest.
Meteor activity was high (I sent the summary on Nov 17). Sporadics were doing
up to 32 per hour while the Leonids displayed a rising trend to 33 Leo per hour
during the last two hours in the morning. No Leonid fireballs were seen during
the regular observations, but a -3m green Taurid appeared during the first
hour. The best Leo was a -2m. After the end, however, there were two very
noteworth Leonids. First was seen only by Javor (by that time only he and I
were still outside). At 12:55:00+-20 UT a -4m Leonid appeared low in the west.
But it paled in comparison to the -10m blue Leonid that appeared at 12:58:00+-
20 UT, high in the northern sky. I saw it directly, while Javor saw the entire
surrounding landscape being lit up by the flash. The train persisted for 5
minutes in the LM 2.0-1.0 sky!
Others didn't see the fireball directly, but they sure heard us see it
directly :) (Copyright 2001, Jim Richardson)
Clear skies!
Jure A.
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