[AZ-Observing] Leonids from the Chiricahuas

[Torsten Clay <tclay@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I watched the show from 8,300 ft in the Chiricahua mountains with 9
others. We had great weather, clear all night with clouds only starting to
move in after 4:30am. Low temperature was in the mid 20's (I'm guessing,
no thermometer), and just a little touch of dew. No wind, and very quiet
(except for the occaisional owl in the distance). We were set up on a
small hill with a spectacular view/drop off to the east. This spot was
near Buena Vista Peak and Onion Saddle.

This was the best meteor show I've ever seen! The peak seemed very close
to the predicted time of ~3am. Several left glowing trails that persisted
for over a minute. Often 2 or 3 were seen moving in parallel
simultaneously. The bright ones would light up the sky like a lightning
flash even if you were looking in the wrong direction. I started out
watching facing east or straight up, and then realized I was missing many
along the western horizon. We didn't try to count, but at the peak it sure
seemed like there was at least one every second. We saw several within Leo
itself that looked kind of like a glowing "-". The rate slowed down after
about 4:30, but saw many until sunrise. The biggest source of light
pollution was the zodiacal light!

A great show, and I'm very glad we made the effort to travel up into the
mountains. I shot two cameras on an equitorial mount continuously from
midnight-4:30 ... I'll post photos if anything comes out.

Torsten
Tucson, AZ

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• References:
  • [AZ-Observing] Leonids from TIMPA
    • From: Andrew Cooper

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[AZ-Observing] Leonids from the Chiricahuas