From: "John Krempasky, Denton, Maryland
Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 06:14:09 -0500


Just got back in from observing 3:00AM to 6AM, near Denton, Maryland, on the
Eastern Shore....LM was about 4.7 but deteriorating towards dawn, of course.
Some high cirrus that was so thin it really didn't affect the LM, as the moon
was the limiting variable.

For those of you clouded out, you didn't miss a surprise repeat of 1966, or a
fireball storm, or anything :-)

I fortunately had viewable skies for ALL the Leonid returns from 1998 through
2001.

I haven't listened to my tapes yet and have no idea of rates, but I'd say that
EASILY these were the dimmest Leonids of them all.....fewest bright spectacular
meteors, most dim ones (even allowing for the full moon.)

I'd say the peak matched the later forecasts, approximately 10:45Z.   Seemed
even "clumpier" than usual, seemed like there was a short sub-peak at 10:15Z.
Surprisingly low numbers 10:00Z-10:15Z and 10:20Z to 10:30Z.

Last year was much better overall, I suspect rates were higher, and still the
most spectacular night was the fireball storm of the first return.

A little pathetic of me getting  so jjaded over the Leonids as I won't likely
see them at high rates again barring advances in medicine or cryogenics :-)