Posted November 26, 2001
I asked, you delivered. The following is a list of reports sent in to Universe Today by readers lucky enough to witness the incredible Leonid Meteor Shower that occurred on the morning of November 18, 2001. In some cases people saw upwards of 1500 meteors each hour. If you missed this event, don't worry, I hear 2099 is going to pretty great too. ;-)
This is just a fraction of the reports that I received, so thanks to everyone who sent their information in. You'll make a lot of people jealous, especially me.
Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today
Salvador, Brazil
Very bright and fast meteors of all colors were seen dropping across the sky from Reaiche Observatory in Salvador, Brazil from 1:30 to 5:30 a.m. local time (UT-2) on November 18. The show started at 03:28 UT when we saw a -6 mag. orange earth-grazer that extended from horizon to horizon. Half of the Leonids were magnitude zero or brighter and most of them left small smoke trails, lasting no longer than a second or two at most. Many meteors (from the 1767 dust trail) occurred within seconds of each other and fireballs also appeared to come in clusters sometimes. The fireballs were the best since 1998's display, but this time there was a much greater number of red fireballs. I saw a -9 mag. fireball at 06:07 UT, which left a smoke train that could be seen for ten minutes with the naked eye. A sequence of four photos in our web site shows the evolution of the train. The highest concentration of bright meteors occurred within 8 minutes: I counted eleven meteors of negative magnitude from 05:48 to 05:56 UT. NELM was around 4.9 and we could not take pictures and count Leonids at the same time, so many were the meteors and fireballs during the four hours we observed. Although astronomical twilight started at 4:40 a.m. local time, we kept seeing fireballs until 26 minutes before sunrise, three hours before the predicted peak over the U.S.A.
On November 19 we saw fewer and mostly fainter meteors than the night before, as we started observing nine hours past the predicted peaks (for the 1699 and the 1866 dust trails), which occurred over Asia. Even so, we could capture on film several bright Leonids. We observed visually 82 meteors ranging from +3 mag. to -5 mag. under NELM~5.1 from 1:30 to 4:40 a.m. local time (UT-2). We saw another 22 meteors until 5:08 a.m., well into twilight.
Paulo Raymundo
Salvador, Brazil
http://www.reaiche.com
Minneapolis/St. Paul
I live in the Southwest suburbs of Minneapolis/St. Paul. I watched from 1:00 to 1:20 and saw three, two very nice ones, one of which was orange/red. I had assumed the peak would come gradually and thought that even if the amount of sightings tripled it wasn't worth waiting around. I learned the next morning I was wrong. Mike Lynch, the meteorologist for WCCO-AM radio in the Twin Cities is an amateur enthusiast who reported on Saturday morning it was one of the most awesome sights he has seen. A thin layer of clouds came in around 3:30 A.M. and at about 3:45 they were about ready to pack it in for the night. Just in time the clouds cleared and the fireworks began. He reported there was constant activity for an hour and included a variety of colors. There were some occasional high thin clouds that passed through and the meteors were bright enough that they could be seen through the clouds, he said he had never seen anything like it.
Count me jealous.
Larry Gansen
Philadelphia
Being a member of the Delaware Valley Amateur Astronomers (located in suburban Philadelphia), I was well-prepared. A fellow member (Don D'Egidio) and I drove to a somewhat dark-sky observing point (about an hour and a half from Philadelphia), had lounge chairs, hot coffee, ski suits and blankets, and started counting around 2:15am (Eastern Time). We saw meteors from all directions, a few appeared to "explode," and a few resembled stones skipping over water. Some trails left behind, lasted for minutes. We saw at least 1,000 meteors in our 4 hours there, but just stopped counting because I just wanted to take it all in. It was absolutely spectacular! I just wished my children (who are ages 4 and 6) could have seen it, but they were in bed). I'm sure you can tell your little Chloe about the meteor shower that came the month she was born.
Diane Castagna
Member, Delaware Valley Amateur Astronomers
Wyoming
This report is a general overview of my observations because I don't have my detailed notes here at work. After reading what everyone else is reporting for the peak of the Leonid shower I'm starting to doubt my ability to count, but then maybe I had a superior observing location. My observing location was in southern Wyoming in the eastern portion of the Medicine Bow National Forest at about 8100 ft elevation with clear dark skies (it was so clear it seemed like I could reach up and tug on Orion's sword).
I observed from 0100 MST to 0500 MST (0800 UTC to 1200 UTC) 18 November 2001 (I took a few breaks to get some hot coffee and warm up in my vehicle). From about 0320 MST to 0400 MST (1020 UTC to 1100 UTC) I counted about 36 meteors per minute. That rate varied over that time period by about + 5 to - 10 per minute. I did all my counts facing north with probably a field of view of about 140 degrees left to right and almost eighty degrees from horizon upwards (I tried not to turn my head during my counts...hard to do when meteors are streaking all over the sky). Many of the meteors were very faint and the ones near the horizon had very short trails, but there were some very spectacular ones that went about three quarters or more across the sky. A few were very bright and a couple seemed to explode.
Early in my observing period I saw a number of Leonids that had very broad trails that reminded me of the hand drawn pictures I've seen from the eighteen hundreds and earlier in books. During my observing period I saw about five random meteors usually with a northerly direction (strangely enough most of them were heading towards the constellation Leo). These seemed to have a more yellowish trail and were a little slower than the Leonids, however, some of the Leonids were a little yellowish as well, but the really bright ones were white with a bluish tint (the blue tint may have been caused by dark adapted eyes reacting to a very bright light). I saw a few with very pronounced smoke trails that persisted for one to three minutes. One of these lasted almost five minutes, I couldn't believe it so I looked away a few times and then looked back and it was still there. As I watched it spread and became crooked like smoke from a chimney on a calm day. Over all it was a very good display and a lot of fun. The only draw back was that it was 25 degrees F. with a west wind at about 25 miles an hour at times.
J. Steven Cochrane
Sarasota, FL
I live near Sarasota, FL but decided to join the Chiefland (FL) Star Party attendees for their last night, which coincided with the peak of the Leonids. The group I was with decided to nap for a few hours before so that we could stay up, but when we awoke at 1:00AM it was completely overcast, and we had gone to bed with beautiful dark skies! Our disappointment didn't last long though, as the clouds started breaking up enough that we were treated to a pretty nice show. I had never seen a meteor with such a 3-dimensional look as one very bright one we saw, when it came in almost directly towards us right out of the radiant in the Sickle of Leo and left a glowing green tail that lingered for several minutes, the best of the eve.
However, the Leonid display we were treated to in '98 was by far WAY better than this recent one! And I didn't even have to drive for three hours to see it.
I, too, had heard from an Australian correspondent that the show there was (apparently) very good.
Brian Matthews
http://www.stonetrek.com
Mildura, Australia
Just a note to let you know that our club camped out at Lake Cullulleraine in Victoria Australia, which is near Mildura in the far North West of Victoria. We were very fortunate in that we had totally clear skies and have very flat areas to view.
Viewed the shower on Saturday and Sunday night, with little movement on Saturday. However, we did witness a meteor from Leo which was intercepted at cross angles by a meteor from the area of Orion. Quite a sight.
We watched the shower on Sunday morning and took a count, estimating that there were 2,000 plus meteors viewed from 3.00 am. Of course, we missed so many as they were all over the sky. With Leo rising, we had a great view of the radiant and witnessed some meteors which flared brilliantly, leaving trails across the sky for up to three or four minutes in duration.
We also had some reporters from Melbourne join us and they took a great shot of the shower on a 30 minute exposure. If I can obtain a copy I will send it to you. With many areas in Australia clouded over, we count ourselves very lucky to have witnessed such a spectacular show.
Kerry Needs
Oasis Stargazers
Alpine, Texas
We have some of the darkest skies in North America in the Texas Big Bend...all times CST.
I got up at 4:00 in the mornin' and the stars were still twinklin'!! But there was an unexpected, and unwelcome SW wind with plenty of moisture that cut right through my cloths. My first clue to the moisture laden air was a fairly constant roof drip. I told my wife Petei that I thought the conditions were too rough for her tender ears. I got out the foul weather coat that is perfect for these kinds of situations and headed out to the viewing area (read - the middle of our driveway).
After a few minutes sittin' in a lawn chair I decided I was missin' too many meteors, so I got the campin' pads and laid on top of them, lookin' straight up. Most of the meteors were short ones, but at 4:39 a pretty impressive one flashed across the SE section of the sky globe. There were so many it was impossible to keep a count, but it seemed like the forecast of 4,000+ an hour was pretty high, although there were many "bursts" of 5 or 6 appearing at once and covering a broad section of the sky.
The best series of meteors from my viewpoint occurred between 4:50 and 5:05, with several impressive ones mixed in with a bunch of lesser meteors. However, nothin' was as impressive as the giant fireball that skipped over my head like a rock in and out of the water during the 1998 Leonids shower. That one lit up the whole area, disappeared briefly and reappeared to the west as it burned up. That was the second most impressive meteor/meteorite I've seen in my entire life. (The #1 meteorite was in the early 60s while I was in Dallas and #3 was at Harper's Ferry in the 90s that was so close you could hear it!!)
It was at 5:05 that I noticed that the sky was getting very dark to the SW and W. My coat and hood were all wet; the empty chair was very wet, as were the toes of my shoes.
Also, my glasses were getting foggy. I grabbed all my stuff and headed back to bed.
When I talked on the phone with fellow star gazer Jim Walker later, he reported a complete cloud out by midnight at his house!! He was very disappointed and never considered the possibility of nearby visibility. We're only 15 miles apart!! I guess I really got lucky. By 7:00 a.m. only the bottom third of the surrounding mountains were visible...luck in timing (and location) - it's everything.
Being a novice at countin' meteor showers, my estimate is most likely high as I figured maybe 3,000 an hour and kept tryin' to imagine what 100,000 per hour was like (in 1966)!!
Most of the trails I saw were only 5 to 10 degrees in length or less but there were several 25-30 degree ones at 4:39 and between 4:50 and 5:05 - that seemed to be my peak. The low clouds were movin' in on me fast, and the eastern sky was startin' to brighten. Who knows what I'd been able to see later, with ideal conditions...
Bernie Zelazny
Alpine, Texas
Big Bend Astronomical Society
Arizona
The show from Southeast Arizona was incredible. We were at a very dark site (Parker Canyon Lake) and the skies were clear. The peak rate was amazing, over 1 per second for about 45 minutes between 3:30 and 4:15 am. Often they were coming down in two's, three's... occasionally even six or seven. Quite a few exploded in bright flashes that cast shadows, leaving trails lingering for up to a few minutes, twisting and turning in the upper atmosphere.
Guy McArthur
New Mexico
Saturday evening November 17th was scheduled as a regular GNTO observing night. The knowledge that the peak of the Leonids meteor shower was predicted to occur later that night and that the shower had the possibility of reaching storm-like rates made for an irresistible attraction for the many TAAS members and guests who made the journey to GNTO. Among the many folks who attended were individuals who drove or flew into Albuquerque from as far away as New Jersey for the chance to witness a meteor storm. Our crowd was later estimated at 55-60 people, 11 telescopes, 3 telescope/camera setups, and 4 camera-only configurations. One person even had three cameras mounted to a single platform on his equatorial mount, providing a wide composite sky view.
Alejandra and I left fairly early Saturday afternoon in order to arrive at GNTO before sunset. So it came as no surprise when we discovered that the recent rains had made the last 6 miles of dirt road to GNTO a bit challenging. There were many large puddles of standing water and pits of tire grabbing mud that had to be avoided. Fortunately, the road was not so bad as to cause any of the folks who eventually showed up any undue difficulty. The weather looked very good with only some distant clouds low on the western horizon. The sky was a nice deep blue, promising good transparency once darkness commenced.
Many folks arrived prior to sunset in anticipation of an evening of observing with their telescope. I got my 20" Tectron setup before twilight set in and started preparing for my evenings observing. I was planning to observe some interesting planetary nebulae but unfortunately for me, and I believe I was the only soul who was so plagued, a fairly brisk wind of 15 to 20 mph set in not long after sunset. I struggled with making meaningful observations but my big dob just didn't like the wind, even when I removed the shroud, so by 10pm MST time, I was pretty well done for the night as far as telescope observing. Folks who possessed smaller instruments were not effected by the wind like I was so I got a chance to schmooze a bit and visit with friends. The 16" Isengard reflector up in the dome of the main observatory building was quite popular with members and guests because it was not adversely effected by the wind. At times it was wall-to-wall folks on the upper level of the observatory, all taking turns sharing great views through the Isengard and enjoying each others company.
What never fails to amaze me is how many times I've packed up my gear only to witness a cessation of whatever weather event caused me to pack up in the first place. Within an hour or so of my loading up the scope, the wind pretty much died completely away. Good thing too, as it made the conditions for observing the Leonids much more pleasant. I suspect that the temperatures never got colder than the mid 30's.
By 11:30pm MST, I decided I had better try and get a little sleep, so off I went to join Alejandra (who was already ensconced in her sleeping bag) in the heated Ortega Building for a little shut-eye. I don't think it was more than 45 minutes or so before some soul came into the red-lit building and quietly announced that "Its started...". Well, as you might expect, that was all it took. Back on went the layers of clothing and back out into the cold did I go.
Here are my observations:
Location: GNTO (General Nathan Twining Observatory)
W 106d 50' 43" N 34d 31m 20"
Elev.: 1800m
Sky limiting magnitude: Variable throughout night, averaged better than 6.2 during all time blocks.
Weather: Some high thin cirrus at times to the north towards Albuquerque and murky stuff low on eastern and western horizons. The view overhead and down to within 20 degrees of the horizon was unobstructed during my observation period.
Nov. 18, 2001 Time block (UT) Leonids Center of view - RA/Dec Hourly Rate 9:30 - 9:40 61 Procyon 7h39m +5d13m 366 9:50 - 10:00 72 Zenith 6h37m +34d31m 432 10:10 - 10:20 106 Zenith 6h57m +34d31m 636 10:30 - 10:40 121 Zenith 7h17m +34d31m 726 10:50 - 11:00 126 Zenith 7h37m +34d31m 756 11:15 - 11:25 128 Sirius 6h45m -16d42m 768 11:35 - 11:45 81 Sirius 6h45m -16d42m 486
The 5 minute interval from 11:15 to 11:20 UT had WAY more than half of my total count for the 10 minute period, something on the order of 80, which would translate to a projected hourly rate of nearly a thousand per hour! Another important bit of information is that when I was lying on my back looking straight up at the zenith, I would estimate that I lost about the first 40 degrees up from GNTOs unobstructed horizon. The loss is due to the fact that I wear glasses and am terribly near-sighted so my peripheral vision is not so good at the extreme edge of my vision. All this leads me to the qualifier that my effective observation field was about 60 degrees in diameter. So, is it safe for me to conclude that we observed meteor storm rates this year? Absolutely!
The American Meteor Society had a team observing from Mt. Lemmon in Arizona. Their data indicated a double peak of activity, one peak occuring at 10:45 UT and the other at 11:15 UT. Their Zenith Hourly Rate was 2500 meteors per hour! My data fall in with theirs quite nicely. It also looks like the model developed by Lyytinen, Nissinen and Flandern with a predicted peak at 10:28 UT was the closest predictor.
The meteors were just raining down over the entire sky! Many possessed trains that were long and persistent. One fellow described the trains as "Tinkerbell dust", an apt description of something very difficult to describe to someone who hasn't seen the phenomenon. My impression was of a ghostly sparkler trail that would fade gradually away over the course of a few seconds. There were a few trains that persisted for many minutes, one as long as a half hour! These persistent trains would slowly kink and twist as they faded away. Colors noted were bluish-white, greenish-white, a couple that were distinctly golden in their cast and one that had a very remarkable reddish hue. Some folks reported their impression of some of the meteors they saw actually changing color as they streaked across the sky! Many bright fireballs were seen as well as a about a half dozen that lit up the ground and created shadows. One very bright fireball had a magnitude that I would estimate as -12! I heard that a few folks present observed pin-point Leonids, Leonids situated right on the radiant heading straight for the observer. Alas, I was not lucky enough to spot those.
Another interesting aspect of the rain of ancient solar system debris was the fair number of meteors seen that were called "Anti-Leonids" by many. These "Anti- Leonids" were unusual because they appeared to be heading in exactly opposite of the direction of the Leonids and to converge upon the Leonid radiant. I suspect that many of these "Anti- Leonids" were in fact Taurids and Orionids. The event was spectacular, remarkable and quite enjoyable to all who attended and the chorus of "wows", "ooohhhs" "aahhhs" following the many, many Leonids seen was music to this observers ear.
Witnessing this event was truly magical, the combination of dark skies, vividly spectacular meteors and many of my close friends nearby reminded me of how fortunate I am to be alive and able to appreciate the rich beauty of the universe we live in. It was something I will never forget.
Gordon Pegue
Tucson, Arizona
Although we did not take photos, we were able to see the storm fairly well in Tucson, Arizona. We were viewing from the foothills of the Rincon Mountains (just beyond the east side of Tucson--the city is about 250 square mi.)
We were able to see an average of about 600 per hour between 2am and 4am Arizona Standard Time on Sunday morning, despite the high clouds (rather uncharacteristic of Tucson weather). What surprised us most was that the majority of the meteors were not located in one area of the sky, and a great many did not go in the same direction. Some of them seemed to almost "skip" and others looked like they might be particles thrown from others as they broke up. Many seemed to be going North to South, but we saw quite a few going in opposite directions, a few even doing so within milliseconds of each other. The brightest ones were low in the sky, and went from East to West. About 10 of our sightings left a dust trail that was visible for more than 2 or 3 seconds! All in all, pretty amazing for me, considering that I was raised in Massachusetts, which is not an area known for it's clear skies! We've been living in Tucson for 2 years now and being able to see the stars almost every night of the year is fairly mind-blowing for me. I surely don't miss the clouds, or the snow this time of year for that matter!
B.Rogers
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson, Arizona
To say that TAAA had the treat of a lifetime on the night of November 17th is a severe understatement! WOW, Gosh, OH GOD, Incredible, Fantastic, Amazing!....We Simply ran completely out of expletives at the TIMPA site that night as 200 people or so had the opportunity to witness one of the rarest events in nature...A METEOR STORM.
I began my evening at Sewell Elementary School with Club members Andrew Keefer and Ewin Whitaker. The school is heavily involved in Project Astro, for which, TAAA has provided many Amateur and Professional astronomers to serve on a volunteer basis in elementary school classrooms. We meet with the kids sometimes as often as weekly to provide lessons and experiments in basic astronomy.
The School and the Partner Astronomers decided to have a LEONID METEOR SHOWER Sleep Over on the school grounds in eastside Tucson. Approximately 60 children in grades 3 and 4 attended the all night event accompanies by 4 Teachers, 3 Astronomers and about 30 parents as well.
We began by hearing from Mr. Whitaker who lectured for 30 mins on his experiences with NASA and the planning of Lunar Missions in the 60’s and 70’s. He showed the children a U.S. Flag that had actually been to the Moon on one mission.
After this everyone went out in the dark to the playground where 5 Telescopes provided the children and adults alike with stunning views of Saturn, Jupiter, and other wonders of the night sky which can be seen from within the limits of the light pollution at 5th and Wilmot Roads.
We had a surprise visit from KGUN 9 News who interviewed several children and Paul Olson on the upcoming Meteor shower.
After the early night event, about midnight or so, I hightailed it out to TIMPA arriving about 1AM....The children remained at the school and were wowed, and awed by the Leonids which Andrew Keefer unofficially counted at approximately 500 Meteors per hour.
At TIMPA, 1AM - Cloud cover over approximately 75% of the sky lead many to pack it in early.... but those who stayed.... were stunned speechless..... in the hours to come.
By 2:30 and the Meteor count was up in the 500-600 area and the clouds magically cleared over our location.....By 2:50 AM we were counting meteors at the rate of 25+ per minute. There simply wasn’t anywhere in the sky where you could look for over 10 seconds and not see a Meteor! Our very unofficial count was in the 2000 - 2500 meteor per hour Range!
I found myself asking if anyone had any extra expletives as I had run out!.....
Seeing a few of the sometimes reserved and serious astronomers going literally horse in voice from wonder at the spectacle was in amazing experience.
Some of the fireballs, especially one in Orion about 3:30 AM, left trails which glowed and twisted in the upper level winds for as long as 5-10 minutes at a time....and there were multiple fireballs coming in groups. It was not unusual to see between 3-8 meteors at one time! Walt Disney and George Lucas....Get out of the way.. cause Mother nature was giving us all a new lesson in special effects that night!
By 5:30 AM the count had again dropped to around 500 Meteors per hour. It was truly fascinating to see car lights going on and see people leaving because there were ONLY 8 Meteors per minute happening at that time (Oh well, another Meteor, time to go home to bed I guess!!!)
I left the site at 6:00 AM and returned to Sewell Elementary where the children were just awakening with their parents at 7:15 AM! Each of the adults and children awoke to recall the wonders they had witnessed the night before. It was an Astronomy Dream night for anyone who had the tenacity to stay up for the event.
Those of us who had the opportunity to witness this incredible event will surely never forget the Night of November 17th, 2001.
For me personally, it was probably the most incredible night that I have ever spent under the stars! I can’t wait to hear the official counts and to get those PICTURES DEVELOPED!
Paul Olson
Toronto, Ontario
just thought i'd write to let you know we saw the shower over in toronto. well, not exactly TO.... my mom and i had to drive north about half an hour to get away from the city lihgts. on our way up, we drove to such thick fog, we couldn't even see 10 feet in front of the car, but the good news is that there was these "clear space" between the fog. i realized it was already 5am, by seeing the number of cars parked along the sides of the highway, all flashing bright yellow and red emergency signals. the show was just spectacular! so may meteors in the sky.it was almost like giant display of sparklers (type of firework) in the sky. i was out leaning back on the bonnet of the car gazing up at the heavens for almost an hour with not much thought for the cold!
christine..
Alice Springs, Australia
My daughter Kelsie, 14, and I had the opportunity for a rare and spectacular astronomical show this weekend, when the Leonids arrived in Alice Springs in full force. We spent the night of Nov. 18 and the morning of Nov. 19 with several other Australian and American observers outside of town at a dark-sky site that offered a light show from 0100 Local to dawn.
The observation sessions was arranged by the Alice Springs Astronomical Society in conjunction with two visiting astronomers from San Francisco, who were working on a Leonids project as volunteers for NASA's Ames Research Centre. Morris "Mojo" Jones and Jean Houston Jones are a couple from Marin County, California, who have been enthusiastic amateur astronomers for most of their lives. They brought along hardware and software that allowed observers--usually about eight at a time--to count Leonids in real time with a click of their individual mouses (mice?). (For statistical results see the website)
After a trial run on the night of Nov. 17, we all met at the Bond Springs Station, about 20 kilometres outside of Alice (23 32 38 S, 133 55 18 E), at about 1830, so we could look over the site in daylight. Kelsie helped check up the observers' ring, a set of white plastic garden chairs set out in a field with a clear view to the northeast. Each chair was =quipped with a mouse port that fed data into Mojo's laptop. The viewing site was within about 100 meters of the nearest phone line, so the data could be shipped back to NASA via the internet as it was gathered. Then we broke for a barbecue at the station as the sun went down.
After dinner my friend Vern and I set up our telescopes down the road apiece, for an informal star party, knowing that the Leonids wouldn't start flying until after midnight. I brought my venerable homemade 6" Newtonian Dobsonian, but Vern stole the show with his new Celestron 11" GPS Nextstar. I have only one thing to say about this telescope: if you can afford it, order one from Celestron NOW. This is the best viewing I've ever had through a commercial scope: tack sharp, BRIGHT, quiet, and just about totally automatic--its built-in GPS receiver tells it where it is, and then it goes to work. Truly excellent optics. As Vern's remarked in the past, "I don't know about anything else, but with telescopes size DOES matter." Okay, it's not exactly man-portable, but Vern is pretty hefty, so he has no problems moving his new scope around.
The new moon was the first target, and we were easily able to pick out individual details by the Earth shine alone with this monster scope. Even my Dob picked up quite a bit under the excellent viewing conditions. We then ran through a bunch of the basics for club members and guest who were staying at the station (it's also a casual resort).
By 2230 local we were back at the Leonid observation site, and did some final checks to make sure the equipment was up and running--everything worked like a charm. We then did individual tests for limiting magnitude--most people ended up getting down to 6.0 or 6.1--a very clear dark night, with just a bit of wind.
I have to admit that I punked out at this point, as did Kelsie. She crashed in one of the cabins, and I stretched out on my chaise lounge with a horse blanket to snooze for a while. At 0130 my eyes snapped open as I heard cheers way beyond what you get at fireworks displays as a massive fireball came up over the eastern horizon, zipped right overhead, and continued on over to the western horizon, leaving a bright train that glowed for minutes high in the atmosphere. The best meteor I'd ever seen in my life, up to that moment.
If you've seen the Bruce Willis movie "Armageddon," you have an idea of what it looked like, except none of these meteors hit the ground.
The show continued on from there. Usually at least two or three meteors - and I'm talking magnitude 2 to -2 - were visible at any one time. During the peak of the shower Mojo's software told us that they were coming at a rate of over 2000 per hour. When you stood up and looked around, entering debris could be see in every direction: bright slow ones, faint fast ones, luminous trains like contrails glowing across the sky; meteors coming directly at us like a ball of flame, a Buck Roger's spaceship trailing sparks and debris as it drilled towards my nose. They were everywhere.
Quite frankly it was more and better meteors than I've ever seen in my life, and better than most fireworks displays I've ever seen. I ended up logging 1,596 Leonids, and maybe 10-15 spurious meteors. Towards the end of the night the radiant of the Leonids was more than apparent, it was a fact of life, like a giant astronomy experiment you've only read about and now see come true.
Kelsie did a great job contributing to the observation team's success. She logged just over 1,000 Leonids, and did her work with enthusiasm and competence. And she had a great time.
The only drawback was the white plastic lawn chairs we had to sit in--these definitely came from the low-bidder on a NASA contract! Luckily we had several comfortable chairs and some swags along.
Everyone else on the team was right there, too. Jane and Mojo were well-prepared and competent organizers and observers. They did this work because they love it, and it showed.
Altogether, one of the great observing events of my life, and I doubt it will be repeated. Even as the sky brightened before dawn, raw streaks of light could still be seen, along with several satellites in low-Earth orbit, evidence that we'd passed through the storm again.