From: Florian Zschage, Kiel, Germany Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 20:53:09 +0100 (MET) First, let me introduce myself. My name ist Florian Zschage, I live in Kiel (yes, the guy from northern germany!), and had my own tremendous display of "The King of Meteor Showers" last night, thanks to the fact, that sometimes the clouds show a bit of mercy and, of course thanks to Rob McNaught and David Asher for their splendid predictions (are these guys wizards or something?). I am 23 years old, and study physics. You asked, why there were so many long-duration yellow meteors during a special time. Let me guess: These special meteors appeared not very long after the rising of the radiant, am I right?! Maybe...0-1 UT? Ok, what you saw was an effect, that has to do with geometry. You know, why all the meteors come from the sickle of Leo? It is just an effect of projection, like some snowflakes (does it snow in your country? ;-), that appear in front of you and spread to all directions, when driving through a snow storm with a great speed, alright? That's exactly what the earth did last night, remember? So all Leonids came (or seemed to come) from just one point, the so called radiant. Now, if the radiant is low in the sky, you must imagine yourself, standing on planet earth, looking at the radiant. You must not look high into the sky above you, but nearly along the surface of the earth. What you see now, are just a few meteors, namely that meteors, that "graze" the atmosphere and slide just over your sky If they were not disrupted, they would even reenter open space. And, because these meteors lose height above ground level so unassertively, they don't burn up so fast...remember - the air is thinner "up there". Don't forget, this works just, if the Radiant is VERY low in the sky. So you can understand the very grand appearance of these "special" Leonids. In 1966 (the last - and even stronger Leonid meteor storm), some scientists in the arctic saw hundreds of these so called "earthgrazers", because the constellation of Leo remained near the horizon during their observations for the whole night. Ok, if the radiant rises (if the earth revolves "into the stream"), the Leonids begin to pour down on you, and as a matter of fact, they become more numerous, shorter, faster - and hotter (!). That's because the friction increases, due to more-vertical impact and the collision course, the earth takes, when the radiant rises. That's why the yellow colour vanished with the rising of the radiant. If you want to learn more about the past (Leonids 1833 - greatest meteor show in written history, formidable eye witness reports!), present and future meteor observations, try the "Handbook for Visual Meteor Observers" sold by the International Meteor Organisation (IMO). But please, don't feel like you're reading a cheap commercial now, ok? I don't get any of this money at all... to bad, if I think about it :-)... P.S.: We were dancing and singing, too. ----- From: Hans Zekl, Einhausen, Germany Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 04:08:31 +0100 Weather was bad all day long, but at 0.15 UT the sky became very clear. Leonids were active with bright meteors and trails which glowed for about a second. I did not make accurate notes, but the estimated ZHR was about 120. After 30 minutes the next cloudfiled ccovered the sky, but iI noted that the western sky was free. I drove about 30 km in that direction. From there I could observe a sharp increase of the numbers of the Leonids. At least every 4 to 5 seconds a bright meteor could be seen. Sometimes one could see 4 at the same time rushing over the sky. Maximum seem to occur at about 1:50 with a second peak at 2:05. At 2:15 the sky become cloudy again and I my observatin ended. I think, although I just watched, at the time of maximum ZHR was over 1000. Locations: 1. Einhausen 8 degrees 35 minutes east, 49 degrees 41 minutes north 2. 10 km west of Worms, 35 km west of Einhausen I never saw such fine display of meteors ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Christine Becker, Florian Zschage, Andreas Petersen, Germany Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 04:18:53 +0100 (MET) We (three guys from northern Germany) went out at about 1:45 UT but had many clouds. The Skies opened at approximately 1:55 UT and stayed clear for about 20 Minutes (p=0.5). At about 2:05 +-2 min., we counted roughly (really just a first estimate) about 10 to 15 Meteors per Minute!!! Really a great show for someone who travelled 8000km last year for the expected maximum over Asia!! After 2:09 UT, new clouds appeared and hid the sky till 2:25 UT Now, just occasionally, a meteor appeared, the event seemed almost over... it seems, as if all calculations were really precise. What does a meteor watcher want more?