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(meteorobs) LEO antiradiant ; WAS Question about Leonid photo

Dear friends,

It was amazing to see this picture as the APOD december 12 ! In fact, it was
taken by our Korean friends Mr Kwon O Chul from Sobaeksan Observatory during
the LEO peak night. Really Kwon photos are very nice ; this one was the
better one, from my point of view ;-)
As I was taken photos from there too, I can explain a little more and
advance an explanation.
I think this photo was taken near or a few dozen minutes after the main peak
during the "fireballs" peak. The field is almost direct west (maybe azimut
280-300).
The exposure time was quite long, but on shorter exposure I have the same
effect.
What I understand is when looking at the opposite direction of the radiant
you have the same perspective "radiant effect" than when looking at the
radiant, BUT the shooting stars are not diverging from the radiant point ;
they all are converging to a point located under the horizon, exactly
opposed to the radiant, what I call the antiradiant.
At this exact time, the radiant was about 50-60° above the horizon in the
astronomer's back, so the antiradiant was located somewhere 50-60° below the
NW horizon in front of him. In addition, there is a dispersion effect
because of the long exposure time.
A definitely amazing picture. Maybe Kwon will add some comments ... I'll
forward any message about his photo. I think he is not on this mailing list
<kwon572@astrokorea.com>

Truly, this effect was very evident and nice to see with eyes during the LEO
night and some friends noticed it too. The more amazing is that this
antiradiant effect is not documented on any publication I read on LEO or
other meteor (but maybe I missed something).  Were some of you noticed this
effect ?

One can see a photo taken almost in the same conditions from the same place,
with the observatory on the foreground on my website.
http://www.astrosurf.com/carnets-astronome/leonides/leonides_dos_intro.htm
Please follow the link "Leonides 2001 korea" or "Une expédition Léonides
2001 en Corée !"
The photo is at the bottom.

More, I add a new webpage with some (I think so ;-) ) very fascinating
persistent trail. Hope you like them !
Follow the link : "Traînées persistantes !"

Best regards,
Christophe



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