LEONIDS -- 2002
I watched the Leonids from 1000-1100 UT on 19 November 2002. From my backyard, the skies were exceptionally transparent, but the seeing was a bit off (not that it mattered, with meteors). Despite the full moon, stars were visible down to the 5th magnitude, and I could distinguish Praesepe between Leo and Gemini. Early on, the radiant was closer to Gemini, but it shifted toward Leo during the shower. My spot was in the shadows, and eventually the moon dropped behind the house, so seeing improved slightly. I saw 200-300 meteors during the hour. Most were about mag. 2 to 0. The brightest came out of the sickle of Leo and flared just below Jupiter, at about mag. -2. The vast majority showed green trails, although the brightest were white, and I detected many vapor trails. The longest-lived arced over 10° of sky; about a third were simple flares. The shower had a definite peak, when 2 or 3 meteors were visible simultaneously. Once I saw four go off in short order in the same small patch of sky. At that peak, I counted as many as 8 meteors in 20 seconds.
Jeff Verona
I watched the Leonids from 1000-1100 UT on 19 November 2002. From my backyard, the skies were exceptionally transparent, but the seeing was a bit off (not that it mattered, with meteors). Despite the full moon, stars were visible down to the 5th magnitude, and I could distinguish Praesepe between Leo and Gemini. Early on, the radiant was closer to Gemini, but it shifted toward Leo during the shower. My spot was in the shadows, and eventually the moon dropped behind the house, so seeing improved slightly. I saw 200-300 meteors during the hour. Most were about mag. 2 to 0. The brightest came out of the sickle of Leo and flared just below Jupiter, at about mag. -2. The vast majority showed green trails, although the brightest were white, and I detected many vapor trails. The longest-lived arced over 10° of sky; about a third were simple flares. The shower had a definite peak, when 2 or 3 meteors were visible simultaneously. Once I saw four go off in short order in the same small patch of sky. At that peak, I counted as many as 8 meteors in 20 seconds.
Jeff Verona
