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(IAAC) Leonids from Ayrshire, Scotland

I lost my Meteorobs connection so Lew can you forward these please.
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 00:30:24
>To: astro, shallow,tmcewan@kersland.u-net.com
>From: Nick Martin <bonnyton@ednet.co.uk>
>Subject: Leonids from Ayrshire, Scotland
>
>Despite dense cloud 4 observers from the Ayrshire Astronomical Society
asembled at Bonnyton House and kept an anxious vigil watching the Meteosat
images of the cloud edge slowly proceeding southward towards them. The cloud
began breaking up shortly before 02.00UT. As the cloud cleared to leave some
reasonable sized hole the sky was full of shooting stars. Just after 2.00
one observer counted 16 meteors in 1.5 minutes seen through a hole only
opening about a quarter of the sky, over another three minute period 30
meteors were counted in a similar area of clear sky. Formal recording began
at 02:07 UT. There were so many meteors onlynumbers were counted . The 4
observers watched different but overlapping segments of sky with one
recorder to mark down each "fix" on a meteor and eliminate double calls.
Almost all the Leonid meteors had short lived greenish trains duration
varying from less than a second to a few seconds for the brightest meteors.
Only one persistent train lasting perhaps 20 seconds was recorded and that
well after the peak was over. The brightest meteor sighted was probably
about magnitude -4, but an unseen meteor lit up the sky at around 02.00 UT.
> I noticed a strange appearance with a couple of meteors where a spark like
object seemed to come off at an angle from the line of flight of an only
moderately bright meteor.
>Record:-
>Obervation period(UT)  Teff.( min)        Leonids   Sporadics       Sky
>02:07-02:14             7                  68           0     Cloud
breaking up to clear
>2:15- 02:24             9                  70           1      Clear but
clouded over at end
>02:29-02.43            14                  85           2      Haze LM. 2.0
at start but rapidly cleared
>02:44-02:59            15                  71           2      Clear
>03:00-03:06             6                  27           1      Clear
>Total 321       in a Teff 53 min                
>Magnitudes estimates period 02:44 - 03:06.UT
> Mag. 0      1        2         3          4        unrecorded
>     10      27      25        24          7            2     
>
>Nick                                                   
>
Nick Martin, Bonnyton House, By Ayr, Ayrshire KA6 7EW ,Scotland, UK.
 Latitude 55 24'56" Longtitude 4 26' 00".


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