From: Clark Chapman, Colorado
Date: Mon, 19 Nov. 2001


      By 3 a.m. MST, the number of Leonids rose to about one every 3 or 4
seconds, 15 to 20 per minute.  Following the predicted "peak", the
frequency rose still further.  From 3:30 a.m. to 4 a.m. the frequency
approached 30 per minute, one every couple of seconds.  After 4 a.m.,
the frequency appeared to drop somewhat, to 15 or 20 per minute.

      After about 3:30 a.m. MST, the frequency of bright meteors (this time
bluer in color than earlier) seemed to increase again, after the hour-long
lull.  Several were especially brilliant, similar to a lightning stroke a
couple of miles away, approaching the brightness of the full moon
(although the sudden flashes were difficult to compare mentally with the
absent moon).  Our counting ceased after 4 a.m., but Leonids were still
frequent after 5 a.m. as clouds increased.

     One surprising observation was the high frequency of coincident,
or nearly coincident, meteors.  These would be 2 to 5 meteors occurring,
in the same sector of the sky, within half-a-second of each other.  The
coincidence seemed much too high for random chance, given the overall
rate.  Yet, in most cases, the nearly simultaneous meteors were separated
from each other by ten or twenty degrees, and could not have broken up
from the same object within the atmosphere.