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Post by Administrator on Nov 19, 2006 11:37:41 GMT
Hi All, As predicted by Armagh astronomer David Asher, the Leonids this year had enhanced activity in the early hours of the 19th November. star.arm.ac.uk/press/2006/Leonids2006_pr.htmlFrom Bangor between 4:15 - 5:15 am it was mostly clear with the odd bit of cloud rolling in sometimes. I saw that rates were above the usual hourly rate of 20 up to about 50-60 per hour (guess!!) After 4:45am rates did seem to increase, there were a couple of bright meteors and two sometimes came in quick succession. The first meteor after 4:45am UT was a bright mag -3 meteor which left behind a persistant ion trail. Here is the brightest Leonid captured by the video camera (www.meteorlogni.com) last night. This was before the early morning outburst and also it is through the cloud!! The meteor is approximately the brightness of a half moon so about magnitude -10 and probably the brightest meteor I've captured in almost 2 years! Please note that there is some distortion in the image due to raindrops on the glass plate in front of the lens. And the video, www.meteorlogni.com/Meteors/2006/11/19/M20061119_012707_Ivyhill_WS.avi
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Post by Administrator on Nov 19, 2006 11:53:42 GMT
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Post by terrymoseley on Nov 20, 2006 0:08:07 GMT
I missed the Asher-McNaught peak thanks to alarm clock failure! Oh Deary Me! Or words to that effect..... Still, the sky was clear, so I observed anyway. And was rewarded with some good 'normal' or 'Ortho-Leonid' activity for a time well after the main traditional maximum. I only got 30 minutes clear sky before more Cirrus Interruptus, but in that time I got six nice Leonids, a Monoceratid, and a sporadic, plus more later (see below). The Leonids were spectacular - I had almost forgotten just how fast they are: even one streaking halfway across the sky takes less than 1/4 second! The magnitudes were +2, +3, 0, +1, + 1 & -1 with a 1 second train. The sporadic was mag 0, & the Monoceratid was +1. The cirrus thickened to stratus, but I could see a clear patch below it in the West, so I waited. While waiting I also saw two lovely Leonids through the last clear area in the sky to the NE (which hadn't been covered yet). One was a lovely -2 heading down below CrB, with a 2" train. Then one appeared right down at the NE horizon, ending in not so much a terminal burst as a terminal flash! It was just like a camera flash going off: I think the fact that it seemed to be heading almost directly away from me foreshortened the burst, so it appeared point-like. That was only about 5 degrees above the horizon, and so must have been nearly overhead from SW Scotland. And if it was -3 for me, at that distance, and at that low altitude, it must have been a real beauty for anyone there! I then got another 10 minutes with a 50% clear sky to the West, from 06.25 - 06.35 but the dawn was encroaching & I ended formal observing. But the best was yet to come: when driving home in the brightening twilight, I saw a real Leonid fireball low in the South, with a magnitude of about -5 ; brighter than Venus! The sky limiting magnitude was a reasonable 5.7, given that I wasn't that far from Belfast. That's too small a sample, over too short a period, to calculate a reliable ZHR but it does show that there's still good activity from the 'normal' Leonids even after the maximum. Terry
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Post by Administrator on Nov 20, 2006 15:07:13 GMT
Thanks for the report Terry, I agree that activity was above the usual 20 per hour but it certainly wasn't the minor 'storm' we were hoping for! Here is some comparison photos of the meteor above, This is a frame from the video at maximum brightness, And here is a frame of video containing an 82% illuminated moon, at magnitude -11.23, Based on this comparison, it seems that this a magnitude -11 fireball!!
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