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(meteorobs) Fwd: [IMO-News] Leonids maximum report from Malta
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Clear skies!
Lew Gramer <owner-meteorobs@atmob.org>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joseph Zammit [mailto:astro@nextgendot net.mt]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 4:41 PM
> To: imo-news@yahoogroups.com
> Cc: maltastro@egroups.com
> Subject: [IMO-News] Leonids maximum report from Malta
>
>
> Hi all
>
> After so many high expectations, we have witnessed a great
> Leonid storm. The weather complied and cloud cover was at
> most 33% and only for a few minutes. Haze was quite low so
> moonlight was not too much scattered throughout the sky. The
> LM was 5.0 throughout nearly all the observation.
>
> Contrary to expectations most of the Leonids were not
> fireballs. In fact, of 956 Leonids I observed, 84% were of
> magnitude 0 or less and only slightly more than 1% were of
> magnitude -4 or brighter.
>
> >From 1.18UT (2.18LT) to 4.48 UT(5.48LT), comprising 3hrs and
> 28 minutes of effective observing time, I observed 956
> Leonids and 13 Sporadics. However, from around 3.30 UT
> onwards the rates rose sharply and in fact, 733 of the
> Leonids were observed between 3.46UT to 4.48UT, i.e. in only
> 63 minutes!!
>
> The highlight was at the predicted time of maximum when I
> noted 99 Leonids in just 5 minutes between 4.01 and 4.05UT.
> 30 Leonids were observed in just one minute - 4.03UT, which
> seems to have been the actual peak. (Note: watches had been
> synchronised with an atomic clock before the observations).
>
> Another highlight were six meteors which fanned out of Leo
> into all directions is a split second, leaving all breathless
> amid numbers shouted by myself and Martin Galea De Giovanni
> who were trying to record all magnitudes on tape.
>
> I have also calculated ZHRs using Metshow - rates rose slowly
> from 296 at 1.24UT to 536 at 3.08UT. Then the rates started
> to increase more rapidly and by 3.48 the ZHR was 1964!! The
> peak ZHR was registered at 4.03UT at 5037!! Rates thereafter
> decreased to the region of 2800-3600 till the increasing
> twilight forced me to stop by observation at 4.48.
>
> Regards
>
> Joseph Zammit
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
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