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(meteorobs) Fwd from Nova Scotia, Canada
----- Original Message -----
From: Patrick Kelly <patrick.kelly@DALdot ca>
To: <RASCALS@ap.stmarysdot ca>
Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 9:14 AM
Subject: [RASCALS] Leonids from Falmouth, N.S.
> Hi all:
>
> I had originally posted this from home early this morning, but
> apparently our new web-based mail system sent it off with my e-mail
> username and it was bounced from the list as I am subscribed under my
> e-mail alias.....
>
> I just got in from having spent the last hour (5:30 - 6:30 AM AST)
> laying in a lawn chair in the cemetery driveway next to my house.
> There were only a few thin clouds, and most of the time the sky was
> completely clear.
>
> Despite the Moon, the MVM was surprisingly good. As I was looking
> straight up, I tried to
> find a faint star near the zenith and was able to hold a dim star
> near Leo's head without
> needing averted vision. Upon coming in I was surprised to find that
> the star was 23 Leo with a magnitude of 5.3! You know it's faint
> when it doesn't have a Greek letter!
>
> I spent most of the time mentally counting off minutes (you know...
> one thousand one, one thousand two...) and keeping track of Leonids
> with the fingers on one hand. For these one minute intervals I had
> Leonid counts that went from 0 to a high of 4, with 2 and
> 3 being the most common. (I had been hoping to have to give my other
> hand something
> to do, but it didn't work out that way....) On the plus side, almost
> every interval saw a Leonid that was quite bright (magnitude 1 or 2),
> and over the course of the hour I saw three that were spectacular.
> With an average of, say 2.5 per minute, that makes my hourly total
> about 90.
>
> Still, it was not as nice as last year's display, but as I am not
> noted for being a "morning person" it was a nice chance to see Saturn
> and Jupiter nice and high, Mars dim in the east and then to see Venus
> rise.
>
> --
>
> Patrick Kelly
> First Vice-President
> Halifax Centre, Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
>
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