From: Rick Nolthenius, U.C. Santa Cruz 
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 13:48:08 -0800 (PST)

     Clouds made the lunar impact monitoring tough. I videotaped the
moon's dark side for about 15 minutes around 4 hr UT (8pm local)
and saw no impacts, but with thin cirrus brightening the background.
I later watched with clearer skies 6:28-7:00 UT intently visually
with our 8" SCT. I saw a couple of "probably my imagination" flashes,
and one which seemed more likely (but still possibly "my imagination").
This later lasted about 1/2 second, reached magnitude 6.5 and was
about 250 miles ENE of Copernicus, on the dark side. Underneath cirrus-
contaminated skies we watched as the radiant rose, but seeing no
Leonids. I think the first Leonid was seen after midnite.I began
video taping with a very wide angle 4mm f2 lens about 1am and
continued until 4am. Cirrus cut the limiting magnitude for a good
hour or so and the count rate was not impressive. However, as
the sky really began to clear, the counts rose quite a bit. I estimate
I was seeing 120-160/hr around 2-3am (10-11UT). These were mostly faint;
3rd and 4th magnitude. Less than 5 were of negative magnitudes; very
unlike the fireball shower of '98. I think I was misled how poor the
shower was earlier because the cirrus cut out all the 4th magnitude
meteors and many others along the margins. I don't know if any meteors
videotapes; I'll have to replay the tape. I was dismayed to see that
the limiting magnitude on the monitor was about m=1.5; not what Iwas
let to believe from an earlier PC23C meteor watcher. (I was ripped! Who
sold me that lens?). Cirrus returned around 4am and I ended counts.
I think the count rate may have been falling slowly even before this,
despite the rising radiant.

   I'll reduce the videotape for counts and any actual meteor recordings.
Chris Angelos; were you successful in getting meteors recorded? What
about at the other site?

   Those of you who bailed out... Me, Bob, Tom, Sue, Pam, Shahram,
Chris Clarke, and also students Peter and Anne and friends had a great time.
The dinner was outstanding, the campfire was fun, the French Toast in
the morning was good (but cudda been GREAT if the racoon's hadn't made off
with my quality bread (why did they leave the funky bread?
Guess they're experienced "campsite 'coons" and getting picky).

    No storm, but a nice shower and a fun experience. We had our first
test of the video system with a normal lens, and also our first
field recording of an occultation (psi2 Aquarii). Let's think
about the Geminids upcoming in a few weeks, and of course the big
total lunar eclipse. I'll bet we can find a graze to go to during the
eclipse if I try.



----
From:  Johnny Kuborssy, Mountain View, California.
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 09:14:40 EST

I went up to Skyline Blvd., up on the way to Half Moon Bay here in
California, I saw a total of 4 beautiful Leonids with a long streaking bright
tail! The rest were very small! I saw an interesting spark that was very far
but bright enough to be noticed. I also saw a shooting bright star that went
in curve, almost like half a circle! Not in a straight line! That was very
interesting. I was just hoping to see more Leonids and fireballs! Anyways, it
was worth getting up at 1am for!!!


----
From: George Zay, Descanso, CA 
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 10:17:30 EST


Just a quick note to give a taste of what happened here. Just got in from the
Anza Borrego desert area and observed under clear skies with LM at 6.0 for
3.75 hours. That is between 9:30 - 13:15 hrs UT,(1:30 to 5:15 am local).
Activity seemed very slow at first....partly due to lingering clouds from a
recent passing front. Then it cleared up by 1:30 am. Then activity began to
pick up....but no where near last years peak from this location. I think my
best hour will be around 50 to 60 leonids. A lot of +3 magnitude meteors with
relatively few bright members. Did pick up a -5 and a -3 that I remember. I
will be getting my final report to Rainer later today or tomorrow with things
more fine tuned. From this location in S. California, the Leonids weren't so
hot.

Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 19:35:09 EST

Here's my data for the night of Nov 17/18, 1999.
I was near Ocotillo, Calif which is part of the Anza Borrego Desert.
Longitude: 116 deg, Latitude: 32 deg 75' North. Elevation:
approximately 500 feet....George Zay(ZAYGE)

Observations began at 9h33 UT and ended at 13h15 UT. Teff: 3.70 hrs.

Periods     Field of View   Teff    F  LM   LEO TAU  Spor
9h33 - 10h33    85deg  -2   1.0 1  6.0  22  6     5
10h33 - 11h33   85deg  -2   1.0 1  6.0  50  3     1
11h33 - 12h33   105deg -5   1.0 1  6.0  49  1     3
12h33 - 13h15   115deg +5   0.70    1  5.60 32  0     1

Leonid Mean Magnitudes for each period:
9h33 - 10h33    =  2.63
10h33 - 11h33   =  2.08
11h33 - 12h33   =  2.55
12h33 - 13h15   =  2.31

Overall Magnitude Distributions:

Leonids: 2(-5), 2(-3), 1(-2), 6(-1), 5(0), 14(+1), 35(+2),
55(+3), 25(+4), 7(+5) total: 152 = 2.37

Taurids: 1(-3), 1(-2), 1(0), 3(+2), 3(+3), 1(+4) Total: 10 = 1.4

sporadics: 1(-2), 1(+1), 3(+2), 3(+3), 2(+4) Total: 10 = 2.20



----------
From: M Linnolt, Hawaii
Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 09:11:26 -0800


Bad Weather, in a nutshell, in the San Francisco Bay area (and most of
Calif too). Rained Tuesday night, and pesky variable cloudiness
remained  most of the night Wednesday, which made good counts very
difficult. Could not find any one hour period free enough of clouds.
There would be periods of big open holes, then become almost totally
obscured. I just report the clearest 20min period I saw, between 1:30 AM
- 1:50 AM PT. No dazzling bright fireballs through the clouds, as I had
hoped. The Leonids I saw were mostly short, moderate ones, near the
radiant. Just generally, quite unimpressive. Better luck in Y2K, lets
hope!

OBS: Mike Linnolt (LINMI)
DATE: Nov. 17/18, 1999
TIME: 0900 - 1000 UT
LOC: Near I-280, 25 miles south of San Francisco, CA
METHOD: Paper

Period(UT) FOV       Teff   F      LM        LEO   SPO
---------- ---       ----   -      --        ---   ---
0930-0950  08h +00   0.33   1.38*  3.0-5.0**  4     1

DEAD TIME: <1 min
BREAKS: 0

LEO: 0(1) +1(0) +2(1) +3(1) +4(1) +5(0)
SPO: 0(0) +1(0) +2(0) +3(0) +4(1) +5(0)

*F determined as 25% cloud for 15min, 35% for 5 min.
** LM was 5.0 in SSW (right FOV) 3.0 in E (left FOV) due to city lights.