From: George Spalding, former director of the BAA Meteor Section Source: WGN, the Journal of IMO 26, (1998) 9 Subject: Remembering the 1966 Leonids (...) The greatest meteor shower in recorded history, it was said, and I missed it by only 9 hours. Having made my first meteor obserations in 1964 of the Geminids, I had become a first year student at St. Andrews University in Scotland by the time that the 1966 Leonid shower came around. I still possess the timely duplicated set of notes sent out by the BAA Meteor Section Director of that time, Harold Ridley. But I do not recall that the publicity was anything like that attending the coming 1998-99 returns; possibly, this was because few people expected anything really sensational from the Leonids in 1966, given their relative failures in 1899 and in 1932-33. At the meeting of the University Astronomical Society a week or so before the shower, the Leonids were debated and observations planned. However, in the event I found myself a lone observer. I started by observational campaign on the fine night of November 13-14 from a site on the seaside, and saw my first Leonid at 0h31m UT. Out of 17 meteors, in two hours of observation, 4 were Leonids. The next night, November 14-15, was fine again, but I was restricted to 35 minutes before midnight, seeing just 2 Leonids. The big night of November 16-17 arrived, but with inferior conditions. This time, I observed from the benches in the cricet pavilion not far from the University Observatory, with a good eastern horizon. It was rather uncomfortable - in those days I had not thought of deck chairs and sleeping bags! The patchy cloud and occasional clear spells allowed only 1h20m total observing between 0h00m and 3h13m UT. My total bag was rather a meager 19 meteors, but at least 10 of them were Leonids. Little did I know that my last meteor, a Leonid, would appear at 3h12m, less than 9 ours before the great peak seen in the USA. The next night, November 17-18, having heard nothing from elsewhere, I was ready to observe again from the same venue. Again, there was patchy cloud, but the clear periods were at least longer than on the previous night. Between 23h50m and 3h15m UT, I observed for 2h50m logging 61 meteors of which 48 were Leonids. (Even now I have never bettered that Leonid score on a single night, only approaching it 29 years later on November 17-18, 1995). There were some really marvelous Leonid meteors, including a magnitude -3 event at 1h21m with a glorious persistent train and a double maximum flare. That ended by my actual observations of the 1966 Leonids. I sent off a couple of postcards to Ridley, who wanted brief summaries in advance of detailed results. The news of the great sight in the US Mid-West only trickled through to me days later at a meeting of my local Dundee Astronomical Society. In those days of course there was no e-mail nor the Word Wide Web for quick access to information. However, I am surprised now that I do not recall checking the newspapers, television, or radio in detail. Perhaps this was because, as I said earlier, we had no reason to expect a sensation. Though I actually got better results from the 1966 Geminids some three weeks later, the Leonids of that year did leave an indelible imprint on my memory. Hopefully these memories will be supplemented by more of the same over the coming few years. Also, having been born at the right time, I may live to see the showers around 2031!