From: George Zay, Descanso, CA
Date: Nov. 17, 1997


       Observing from the abandoned gold mines of Ogilby, Calif.

My Leonid Observation for Nov 16/17, 1997 George Zay

Okay...I left last night around 5pm for my Descanso, Ca. observatory. After
arriving, I noticed a lot of clouds in the area and decided to pack things up
and head for an area near Yuma, Arizona...Ogilby. It was nearly a 3 hour
drive. At Ogilby I found a nice wide open area...but I had lots of clouds
over me there also. At about 9:30 pm, I decided to nap for a couple of hours
and see what the sky looks like when I awake. At 11:30 pm the sky was
completely clear. Still a bit groggy from my nap, I proceeded to set things
up. I usually get thoroughly clear headed by the time I start my watch. I was
hoping to wake up gradually...but it became a sudden event when I slamed the
car door on my thumb. So...with a sore black and blue thumb nail, I began my
1997 Leonid campaign with a bang. The moon made things quite brite. My
average Limiting Magnitude was around 4.7 for the entire night. I faced North
and Northeast most of the night. I was able to observe for 5.5 Teff hours.
Despite the low LM, activity started immediately it seemed. By nites end, I
recorded a total of 105 meteors. Of which 92 were Leonids. I didn't notice
any given moment as to having a sudden burst of activity...rather it seemed
relatively steady and increased with the rising radiant. But my rates for a
low LM were higher compared to last years efforts under darker skies.
So...Leonid activity is apparently still on the rise. There were numerous
bright meteors observed. The brightest were the following fireballs:
-9, -8, -6, -6, -5, -4, -4, -4, -3, -3.  The brilliant white -8 had a 30
second train.  Both it and the Blue -9 were kinda low in the North. The -9
hugged the horizon and had only an 8 second train. If  Robert Lunsford and
Peter Brown saw them, they should have been a spectacular sight if they found
some clear skies. I'm still assuming that they were somewhere North of
me...but I don't know where they ended up at. It's possible they could have
been just around the next hill? I didn't see anyone else observing...heck...I
didn't see anyone else at all! In addition to the above mentioned fireballs,
I also recorded seven -2 magnitude Leonids. The relatively dim meteors
weren't apparent...but this could have been due to the bright moon. Only got
about a Bakers dozen of Leonids that were +3 or +4 in magnitude. Last year
they seemed quite bright also. I observed until 5:24 am PST...no apparent
sign of any sudden Leonid increase as dawn over ran the show. My complete
report will be done later and sent off to IMO. This should give everyone an
idea how it went for me. I hope everyone else faired well? With this
observation, I might have reached 200 Teff hours for the year...if not, I'm
shy a few minutes or so?