From: Bruce Weaver, Greensboro, NC, dakota3h [at] msn.com
Date:
Subject: 

My name is Bruce Weaver and following is my vivid recollection of that 
amazing event on the morning of November 17, 1966. My view was from 
Bradenton, FL:

I was a precocious 14 year old freshman that fall and was expectant of 
the 1966 Leonid meteor shower. I lived in East Bradenton (FL) and had 
the advantage of a bookmobile visiting our neighborhood each week. When 
one of the librarians recognized my avid interest in astronomy she began 
selecting books for me from the main stacks. One if them, which I adored 
at the time for its charts, was called, The Telescope and the World of 
Astronomy by Marvin Riemer. To this day I have retained hand copied 
notes I made in the fall of 1966, reproducing some of the data in 
certain reference charts.

On page 170 of the book was the "Table of Important Meteor Showers." 
Under the remarks section for the Leonid shower was this prediction: 
"big display 1966." In 1987 I ran across a copy of this book at a used 
book store. Following a scanning of its contents to confirm it was THE 
volume, I snapped it up.

Looking out my bathroom window that expectant November morning quickly 
demonstrated that meteors were falling. I hastily set up outside with my 
lawn chair faced east. My crude method of recording the big event was to 
make a mark for each meteor sighting. I had a flashlight with its red 
shield held down on my spiral notebook. I would turn on the flashlight 
briefly to record the sighting and then switch it back off. Glare from 
the flashlight was minimal.

The whole event was absolutely phenomenal! I witnessed two bolides that 
morning in which, when they exploded, it was the equivalent of daylight 
for a brief instant. Incredible! The first exploded behind me. I 
followed the second one down and it exploded front and center to my 
eastward vantage point. It was so exciting at times that occasionally a 
bright star out of the corner of my eye caught my attention from time to 
time--an obvious false alarm.

My totals for about one outstanding hour was 278 meteors! I retained 
that page with its scratches, from my spiral notebook (by the way, I 
wondered what would happen the next day--11/18--and counted 35 meteors 
in roughly the same time period).

Unfortunately as the storm seemed to be intensifying, daylight began 
intruding. However, I will never forget one further remarkable, 
lingering phenomena that I have not seen duplicated since. In the 
vicinity of the upper part of Virgo and just south of Denebola a large 
bright cloud appeared to be growing in intensity. At the time I wondered 
if I was seeing the zodiacal light. In retrospect I am convinced that 
this bright area of enormous size I viewed as a mysterious parting 
accompaniment was the meteoric cloud from which the ultimate swarm of 
fireworks later exploded, perhaps highlighted by the early morning sun.

A footnote: one of my friends, Gary Fleming, was president of our 
Southeast High School astronomy club (and member of the Gulf Coast 
Astronomical Scoiety or GCAS) and had also observed the meteoric 
spectacle. While in his high school classroom that morning he was 
looking out the window and witnessed a meteor falling in broad daylight. 
Utterly captivated, he instinctively stood up in awe. His teacher, 
oblivious to the extraordinary circumstance this upperclassman was 
responding to blurted out, "Gary! Sit Down!"