From: Sheilla Gheesling, Atlanta, GA
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 09:34:01, -0500


Had a disappointing night here, in the northern portion of metro Atlanta.
Hope you had better luck.

We were outside by 3:30.  I was in and out a bit for about 15 minutes,
checking TheSky program, etc., but Mom made a point of keeping her head
up continuously when I was not there and she did not see any meteors at
all last night.

At about 4:10, she decided to go back to bed because it was getting a
bit cold for her.  I told her I'd call if things started poppin'.  But I
only saw 5 meteors, all Leonids, so I let her sleep.

The first was at 4:27, a bright one (easily as bright as Sirius), the
brightest I saw.  It was quite short, though, maybe 5 deg.  Train was
fluffy and very white but disappeared fast, as they all did.  It was
moving almost due east out of the radiant.

The second was at 4:50, was just a bit less bright than the first and
was headed south out of the radiant.  Otherwise, same description.

The third was very faint, moving NE out of the radiant, seemed somewhat
bluish but my impression was that it appeared bluish because it was so
faint, not because it was actually blue.  Also a quickly disappearing
fluffy train.  4:53 am.

The fourth was at 5:03, medium intensity, heading NW out of the radiant,
white, again a short train with a fluffy appearance, quickly
disappearing.

The fifth and last that I saw also appeared to come out of the radiant,
headed due west, but otherwise looked very different from the others.
It was even fainter than the faintest of the others but had a much
longer train (maybe 15 deg) but no fluffy quality at all.  A straight
arrow of a meteor.

At 5:17 I felt tired and decided to go back to bed since it appeared the
storm wasn't going to happen, at least not here.  I packed up and headed
in, wrote a quick note to you, then went back outside for 3-4 minutes
(at about 5:25) to be sure I wasn't missing the beginning of the "storm"
.  But I didn't see anything at all and went inside.

Hard to say what my limiting magnitude was since the Little Dipper was
behind some trees.  So I looked at the Pleiades.  From the first, even
before my eyes adjusted, I could see 7 stars.  I looked back at them
from time to time and was never able to see more than 7 or less than 6
with the naked eye, for sure, though a few times I thought I caught a
glimmer of an 8th star.

The night was clear and cold with no wind except for a breeze that
started up the last half hour or so.  It seemed a good night for viewing
for this area, but light pollution is always a problem here.

>From 3:30 to 5:17, the only breaks when neither of us was looking up
happened after 4:10.  I would briefly glance back at the Pleiades from
time to time.  And when  I discovered my recorder was not working
properly while trying to record the 4th meteor at 5:03, I dashed in to
grab a notepad and pen (maybe 15 seconds).  Then I spent about a minute
looking up and down, recording all 4 on paper (probably only 10-15
seconds actually looking down).  Then a brief moment after the 5th, to
write down the basics about it (maybe 5-6 seconds, at the most).

I have very limited vision to the south, so it is quite possible I
missed some meteors headed south, if they started at a point beyond my
line of sight.  I stood up for a while, hoping to catch sight of some
but all the ones I saw came while I was sitting down and originated
fairly close to the radiant.

I hope everyone had better luck than I did.