[AZ-Observing] Leonid Report from the Blue Hills Area

["Stanley A. Gorodenski" <stanlep@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Everyone has hit on much of what I could say. As an addition to what has
already been said, during peak time I noticed multiple streaks, but some
were so faint it was difficult to say for certain I had seen them.
Without the full moon I am sure things would have been more definite.
Also, my eye would catch what appeared to be streaks out of the corner
of my eye but because they were so faint I could not be sure what I saw
and so I did not count them. The final thing I noticed is that there
seemed to be a much higher proportion of meteors, compared to last
year's observations, going in a direction opposite to where the Leonids
were supposed to originate from, e.g., instead of going from east to
west from the radiant, they would go from west to east.

I had a couple guests (Jack Morris and his wife Glenda from Connecticut,
and my mother), and because of this, and because of the poor shower, and
because of having made the mistake of drinking too much hot chocolate
and coffee (which really wasn't that much), I did not maintain a
rigorous count as I had done last year. The skies were clear throughout
the whole night, but there were a set of low clouds (about 4 degrees
above the horizon) to the north later in the evening that did not impact
on the observing at all. It was much colder than last year. The
following is what I counted in MST at my place in Blue Hills (about 7
miles directly SE of Prescott).

08:03 pm - start time of observing
11:37 pm - Two meteors. One broke up into two. These are the first
meteors I 
           saw since the start time of observing, although my mother had
seen 
           one earlier than this. Last year I saw my first meteor, a
nice 
           one, about 7:30. Also, last year (if I recall correctly)
meteors 
           were counted throughout the time from 7:30 to midnight,
although 
           the counts were not very high. This year there was nothing
until 
           much later. This may have been in part due to the full moon
this 
           year. As a result of this poor beginning I began to have
serious 
           doubts that the 'storm' would materialize as had been
predicted. 
11:43 pm - one meteor
12:20 am - 1
12:26 am - 1 (very nice)
12:30 am - 1
12:35 am - 1
12:40 am - 1
12:46 am - 1
12:54 am - 1
|
The observing from 8:03 pm and 12:54 was not continuous because I had
taken three short breaks, two of which was to make hot chocolate and
coffee (a mistake). 
|
12:55-01:00 am - 3
01:00-01:10 am - 2
01:10-01:20 am - 3
01:20-01:40 am - no count. Hot chocolate-coffee toilet break
01:40-01:50 am - 6
01:50-02:00 am - 5
02:00-02:10 am - 6
02:10-02:20 am - 5
02:20-02:30 am - no count. Hot chocolate-coffee toilet break
02:30-02:40 am - 8
02:40-02:50 am - 6
02:50-03:00 am - 9
03:00-03:10 am - no count. Hot chocolate-coffee toilet break
03:10-03:20 am - 16
03:20-03:30 am - 21
03:30-03:40 am - 52
03:40-03:50 am - 83 
03:50-04:00 am - 50
04:00-04:10 am - 23
04:10-05:20 am - no formal counts made because of other business that
had to 
                 be taken care of. By this time the activity had
definitely
                 subsided. However, at around 5:00, or so, there were a
few 
                 more spectacular Leonids, but by 5:20 it seems things
had 
                 pretty much shut down.

End of report.

Stan Gorodenski
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[AZ-Observing] Leonid Report from the Blue Hills Area

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