From: Dave Lane, Halifax, Canada 
Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 2:14 PM


 The weather forecast for at least the 1st peak for Halifax was looking
 quite poor despite the sucker clouds in early evening. The clear sky clock
 was showing clearing by 1am in south eastern New Brunswick, so Darren
 Talbot, me, Paul Gray and Paul Heath drove 2.5 hours up into NB between
 Sackville and Moncton. The sky cleared right on cue. We had clear weather
 throughout the night with the odd cloud drifting by at high-warp (it was
 very windy!).

 The rates were good for a shower, but there was no storm. I would imagine
 that Paul Heath will post his rates when he wakes up! The rates were
 picking up quite a bit between 530 and 6 am AST  but at that point it was
 nautical twilight and we were beginning to loose the fainter ones.

 All in all a good show --- thanks again to Attila Danko and Environment
 Canada for the very useful service.

---
From: C. Nason, Saint John, NB, Canada 
Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 7:53 AM


Clouds 2 Leonids 0

 We had somewhat better luck in Saint John, NB. There was a beautiful
 sucker hole over the city when we headed west to Pennfield at 22:00 AST 
 (02:00 UT). That area was mainly cloudy (and so was SJ by that time) 
 when we started observing at 23:30.  A few bright Leonids found their 
 way through the holes. By 02:30 we were socked in, so two of the 7 
 observers went toward Maine in search of better skies and 4 went home.  
 I left soon after for home to check the satellite weather (40 minute drive), 
 and it was still cloudy.  At 04:30 I noticed bright moonlight so I headed 
 west to Prince of Wales where the skies were nearly cloudless.  With 
 the Moon I estimated about magnitude 4 in the north.  Looking up from 
 a cot my field of view at 05:00 covered Orion, Capella, Polaris, Arcturus 
 and about 20 degrees above the ESE horizon where my feet were pointed.  
 Meteor counts were:

 05:00-05:10   5 meteors
 0510-0520    11
 0520-0530    10
 0530-0535    5
 0535-0545    20
 0545-0555    11
 0555-0605    20
 0605-0615    26
 0615-0620    8
 0620-0625    9
 0625-0630    5
 0630-0635    7
 0635-0640    1
 0640-0645    4
 0645-0650    3
 By this time Regulus was barely visible.  I grabbed a some very nice views
 of Venus, Mars, Spica, Jupiter and Saturn in my 15x63 Mini-Giants (Thanks,
 Joe!), then left for home.  One more Leonid through the windshield (not
 literally) at 07:05.  About 145 meteors in 2 hours; very good, but if
 there was a storm or strong shower at 10:30 UT they were faint.  
 Maybe 20-25% left trails.