From: John Krempasky, Denton, MD
Date: Sat, 18 Nov 2000 01:57:56 -0500


My apologies on no limiting magnitude; always a bit hazy about how to do it, and
with this moon, even more uncertain (moon is rather bright, have been able to
block out direct view with my house..generally looking overhead. Skies are
totally devoid of clouds, at least.)

Observations:

6Z-630Z:  24 Leonids, one I'd describe as a "fireball", 2 sporadics/other
showers (one amazing instance where a bright green leonid passed on a parallel
track in the exact opposite direction of a very slow-moving , orange-yellow
meteor, a thumbs-width apart :-)

630Z-645Z:  15 Leonids.

They're pretty bright..no 1998 style fireballs, but the average brightness is
quite good and trains last a good 3-4 seconds.   Worth going out even if your
conditions are marginal.

Headed back out..

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Date: Sat, 18 Nov 2000 03:46:40 -0500

Found I had to continually shift to keep my rooftop barely obscuring the moon as
it rose....skies remained devoid of clouds. But during this period, due to my
house, I was easily obscuring 40% of the sky I've normally watched for Leonids
at that time of night in 98-99...and ironically the brightest I seemed to catch
barely peeking over the rooftop.

As a rough guess, on a moonless night, not having to contend with the moon, and
also being able to have a fuller field of view to the East, I'd guess the
numbers below would have been doubled.  I had essentially no view whatsoever of
any Leonids extending "down" from the radiant to the horizon the entire period
(or short-track meteors close to the radiant).

Observed from 7Z to 820Z..over time the brightness of the meteors definately
decreased.

Time              Leonids          Sporadic/Other Showers

700Z-710Z             8                    0
710Z-720Z            15                  3
720Z-730Z            23                   0
730Z-740Z              8                    1
740Z-750Z            15                   0
750Z-800Z            13                    1
800Z-810Z            15                    1
810Z-820Z              8                    1


At about 710Z I observed 4 bright Leonids simultaneously and briefly had wild
thoughts of the great storm of 2000 beginning, but it was an isolated spurt :-)

Within each time period the Leonids were unusually separated into brief bursts,
much more so than 1998.  Almost all occured in groups of 3-4 within the space of
15 seconds and large gaps in-between.

The size of the satellite "cloud hole" over the Mid-Atlantic certainly means
that far more qualified observers should have had a good view.  Looking forward
to see the ZHR calculations....Given that I was able to see 89 in an hour, with
that moon, much of my sky obscured by my House, and in a rural/suburban area
with a lot of security lights at nearby houses, I'll hazard a guess ZHRs may
well have topped 200.

After some careful study (and atmospheric conditions did not change at all
tonight) I'm estimating my LM at 4.7 for the observations below...this based on
the Little Dipper and Orion....Little Dipper has far more significant moon
problems, of course.