From: Norman W. McLeod III, Florida:  nmcleod [at] peganet.com
Date: Tue, 31 Aug 1999 02:00:55 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: 1966 Leonid storm night

Late evening of 1966 Nov 16 I went downstairs in the dormitory at Florida
State.  Someone then informed me that a group of students had gotten wind of
a big meteor shower coming and that they were already up on the sun deck
observing.  This being around 11 PM, I knew they were much too early as the
radiant was just below the horizon in the ENE.  So I went to the sun deck
myself to witness the eager group waiting for action.  I told them it was
too early and to wait until after 2 AM.  But I doubt if anyone lasted long
enough to see anything; it was nap time for me until 2 o'clock.  The
location was Tallahassee, Florida, latitude 30 N, longitude 84 W.

A few months later I discovered what I had missed by going back to bed. 
My Leonid rate reached 3/minute about 4:30 AM EST.  My rate of 6/minute 
didn't start until 5 AM.  Magnitude-only recording began at 5:03 AM, then 
without times after 5:19 AM.  In the period 5:19 to 6:00 I recorded 361 
meteors, finishing at about 30/minute as dawn and fog combined to end 
the show.  It was a very steady rain of meteors, one each two seconds, 
with none simultaneous and no bunching seen.  During that 40 minutes 
I saw two  -5's and four  -4's ; these acted like punctuation marks within 
the display.

The following evening the local newspaper had a short article on 
the front page headlined  "Meteor Shower Fizzles."   It was the usual confirmation
that the public needs a much stronger or brighter event than an astronomer
in order to be impressed.  The peak came after sunrise; it just couldn't be
observed.  It was too foggy for the next few hours to try for daylight
Leonids, plus I was pooped.  I was just thankful the fog held off until dawn.
Soon after that I thought about how sad it would be for new people to get
interested in meteors during 1967.  I was born in 1946 and began meteors in1960, 
so I was fortunate to have a few years experience in time for the 1966 Leonids.

Norman W. McLeod III
Asst Visual Program CoordinatorAmerican Meteor Society
Fort Myers, 
Florida