From: J. K. Snospam, Silicon Valley, Northern California
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1998 19:45:17 -0500 (EST)


Despite predictions of poor weather in our area, the sky was quite
clear and the air pleasently warm (ah, California) for Leonid
observing in the early morning of Nov 17.  My 9 year old daughter
and I got up at 3 am pst, settled into a comfy lounge chair and
watched the show unfold.

We counted off 31 meteors in the 45 minute period from 3:15 am pst
to 4:00 am pst.  Then from 4:15 am pst to 4:45 am pst I counted off
another 10 with the last one being a very bright green one with a
nice burst of brightness at the end.

Most that we saw seemed to be originating (radiating) from Leo.
Many of them were quite bright (fireballs?) and some has trails
persisting for 2-10 seconds (sorry we're not (yet) an experienced
observing team).  Though the sky was quite clear, I estimate the
limiting visual magnitude to be only 4.1 (due to the light pollution
from San Jose to the south east of us).

Very, very cool .. and wonderful to have shared w/ my daughter.