FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Leonid Observations

[Stan Gorodenski <stanlep@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The following is my Leonid report:

Date:           Night of November 17-18, 2001
Location:       Blue Hills Observatory
Observer:       Stan Gorodenski

Sky Conditions: 
    7:40  The Milky Way is visible across the entire sky.
          The Pleiades is distinct and clear.  The southeast
          and east are opaque.
    7:57  The sky is opaque below Elnath in Auriga.
    8:15  Zeta Taurus is clearly visible.  The entire sky is 
          clear except south just above Phoenix.
    10:57 The entire sky is very transparent except for the 
          southern part above Phoenix.  
    From 10:57 until the start of the 2:00-3:00 counting 
    time period the sky remained very clear.  About midway 
    through the 2:00-3:00 time period, the southern part of 
    the sky started clouding over, but this did not appear to
    be to such an extent as to adversely affect counts.  At the
    same time a small patch of high clouds just north of the
    meridian formed but was of a small enough size that it did
    not appear to adversely affect the counts.  As time 
    progressed from 2:30-3:00 this patch became (or was
    replaced) a long high cloud running east to west.  By 
    3:00 the southern half of the sky had significantly clouded
    over and started merging with the high cloud that ran east
    and west.  Shortly after the start of the 3:00-4:00 time
    period, the sky had significantly clouded over to such an
    extent that I was only able to see Leonids in the northern 
    part of the sky. By 3:30 my visibility was restricted to 
    less than 30 degrees of altitude to the north.  At this 
    point I was thinking of quitting but did not.  From 
    3:30-4:00 the clouds started clearing to the north, and 
    Orion and other parts of the west and northwest part of
    the sky started to clear off nicely.  It is interesting 
    that although from 3:00-4:00 my seeing was narrowly 
    restricted, I obtained some of my highest counts.  Those
    who were in a completely clear location must have had a
    spectacular view.  From 4:00-4:30 the entire sky was in
    the process of clearing off, and by 4:30 it was again
    completely clear except for about a 30 degree altitude
    area to the south and south east.  
    
Leonid Counts:
    The first Leonid was seen at 7:40 streaking from east to
    west in the north half of the sky.  This was the most 
    spectacular one that was seen until 12:05.  At 12:05 the
    most spectacular one in the whole evening (that I was able
    to see) occurred, going from east to west, causing a trail 
    that spanned almost the sky.  In the counts below the time
    period from 7:40-12:00 is not a rigorous count.  There did
    not appear to be much activity and so the sky was not 
    continuously watched - I made coffee, hot chocolate, 
    fussed around adjusting the pad for my chair, and other 
    such house keeping activities.  The 12:00-4:30 time period
    was a concerted attempt to see as much of the sky as 
    possible and there were no breaks in the observations.
    From 4:30-4:45 there were no counts made but the number
    of Leonids had the impression of winding down which may
    be a wrong impression.  From the 7:40-1:00 time period
    I made a note of meteors that clearly did not come from 
    the Leonid radiant.  From 12:00-4:30 I did not record
    these, of which only a few were observed.
        7:40  The first Leonid seen in the north half of sky
        7:57  Second Leonid seen in the north half of sky
        8:25  Faint meteor from the northwest
        8:34  Faint meteor from west to east
        8:55  Faint one overhead
        9:15  A meteor from the southwest to northeast.
              Another one occurred a few minutes later.
       10:03  Faint one going from the southwest to the 
              northeast in the east.
       10:22  Faint one from south to east in the east.
       10:52  Faint one from east to west in the north
       11:16  Faint one from south to north in the north at
              low altitude
       11:18  Faint one from north to south in the southeast
       11:57  Faint one from the west to east just east of the 
              meridian.
       12:00-1:00  30 meteors, 5 of which did not originate
                   from the Leonid radiant
        1:00-2:00  81 meteors
        2:00-3:00  146 meteors
        3:00-4:00  398 meteors
        4:00-4:30  251 meteors
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