From: Tom Ashcraft, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Date:  Monday November 16, 1998


Indeed, there is a strong display of smoky Leonid fireballs. Beautiful as=

can be even in moderate light pollution. =


I read in a magazine article that one witness to the 1966 Leonid storm
described it looking "like snowflakes hitting a car windshield." I would
think that with all the smoky trains I saw last night that this year's
possible storm would look more like fireworks and resemble the old art
renderings of different Leonid fireball storms. It will be incredible if =
it
happens somewhere. Hope so.

*****

For extra viewing interest there is a newly discovered comet in outburst
and it's easily visible in binoculars as a diffuse glow. I saw it last
night in the vicinity of Cassiopeia and the Double Cluster. =



Comet Linear C/1998 U5:

  Date    R.A. (2000) Dec.     R       r     Elong  Mag.    Motion
          h  m       o  '     (AU)    (AU)     o          "/hr P.A.
1998 Nov
   =

  17.00   2  5.94  +60 29.7   0.443   1.343  135.9  10.5   676  268
  18.00   1 30.11  +60  1.9   0.447   1.337  133.6  10.5   664  260
  19.00   0 56.75  +59  0.2   0.454   1.331  131.0  10.5   644  253


Tom Ashcraft
Santa Fe, New Mexico