From: Casper ter Kuile, Dutch Meteor Society, de Bilt, the Netherlands
Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2001 10:56:32 +0100


A group of international observers at the Xinglong Station of the National
Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in China
observed the Leonids on the night of 18/19 November. The Xinglong Station
is located about 110 kilometers north-east of Beijing. The Leonids are
dustparticles which are released while the comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle passes
the sun every 33 years. The meteors are called Leonids because they seem
to emerge from the constellation of Leo.

Tonight the observers experienced a real meteor storm. That is, meteors
appeared at a rate of about 40 meteors per minute at maximum. It looked
like meteors where raining from the sky, and at certain moments 8 meteors
appeared at the same time. It seemed to the observers as though they could
really see the earth moving through space. Rates went up from 15:00 UT
(Greenwich mean time) when the Leonid radiant rose above the eastern
horizon. The maximum was at about 18:06 UT, and after this time rates went
down slowly. Many fireballs were observed especially in the second part of
the night.

The Sino-Dutch Leonid Expedition 2001 had set up 4 stations near the
Xinglong area to provide multistation photography and video observations
of the Leonid meteors. The aim is to compute the orbital elements of the
meteoroid dust particles in space. Equipment at all stations performed
flawlessly. The Sino-Dutch Leonid Expedition 2001 is a close collaboration
between Chinese and Dutch astronomers to gain knowledge of the Leonid
meteor stream and its origin.

Observers include:
Dr. Jin Zhu of the NAOC, China
Dr. Xiaojun Jiang of NAOC, China
Bin Yang of NAOC, China
Dan Xia of BMS, China
Huan Meng of BMS, China
Jian Gao of BNU, China
Min Guan of BNU, China
Rui Qi of QHU, China
Wenzhong Liu of BNU, China
Xuefei Gong of BNU, China
Yongming Chen of BMS, China     Lew Gramer of NAMN, USA
Arnold Tukkers of DMS, the Netherlands
Casper ter Kuile of DMS, the Netherlands
Jos Nijland of DMS, the Netherlands
Koen  Miskotte of DMS, the Netherlands
Michel Vandeputte of VVS, Belgium
Robert Haas of DMS, the Netherlands
Sietse Dijkstra of DMS, the Netherlands