Observations

The Leonids!

The sky conditions this morning were far from ideal. There was a full moon in the West and thin clouds covering most of the sky. The moon illuminated the clouds and washed out the sky background most effectively. In many parts of the sky only the major stars were visible although there were some relatively clear patches where the limiting magnitude might have been as good as 4th. The moon was rather far from the Leonid radiant (100 degrees?) and that was helpful. The temperature was well below freezing.

I estimated that I saw somewhat more than one Leonid per minute. I'm guessing that I observed a rate of 100 per hour. I did not do any kind of formal count, however. Considering the conditions the shower was quite active although I doubt if the ZHR was several thousand per hour as some had predicted for this time.

As I observed last year, some of the Leonids were rather faint and some were quite bright. This year I saw more bright ones than faint ones due, no doubt, to the sky conditions. On one occasion I happened to be looking directly at a rather bright Leonid as it flashed by. It was considerably brighter than Jupiter (conveniently placed in Leo as a comparison "star"). I'd estimate the meteor at magnitude -4. On another occasion, I was looking away from the meteor, but I knew a bright one had just happened because I could see the snow light up around me. When I turned I saw a thick "smoke trail" glowing brightly for a few seconds. It was located near the moon and may have been glowing, partly at least, from reflected moonlight.

Overall it was a good show compared to most meteor showers, but not as impressive as what I observed last year and certainly not a meteor "storm".