From: Joe Assmus, SanDiego, CA
    Office of Sleep and Circadian Studies
    School of Medicine, Univ of Calif
Date: Nov. 17, 1997


    Despite GeoZay's pessimistic weather-report postings, I just knew that
  Southern California observers had to be blessed with decent LEONID
  conditions.   Not having the energy/time to make the loooong drive up to
  Central Cal to join Jennsikens, Lunsford et al, nor did I feel like making a
  3 hour sojourn to local desert, I decided to stay home, set the alarm for
  215am local...  At 240am, I walked the 6 blocks down the street of my
  apartments (w/ pot 'o hot java, notepad, and chair in hand) to a huge
  grassy plateau (100+ acres of undeveloped land)...  nice 360deg views...
  didnt even need red penlight due to the moonlite... it is only ~25km S to
  downtown San Diego and very close (~3km) to the Pacific Ocean, so it is
  rarely clear here at night.. but because of the building high pressure (and
  the week's cleansing rains), it was one of the clearest cloudless nights
  I've seen, in my neighborhood, in the past 7 years!  Even with the washout
  of a brilliantly bright moon, my LM=5.4 - 5.6.. couldn't believe it...  I
  kept recounting the star area 'tween alpha-theta-23 Uma and kept coming up
  with 8/9 stars!  This was very near my Center of Field (which was area
  around Gamma UMa)...I kept pretty well centered there for the entire
  session.

    Under such bright lunation, I was pleasantly surpised to count a total
  of 64 meteors with a Teff of 2.414 between the hours of 300-530 Local Time
  (1100-1330 UT).   There were 7 meteors of negative magnitude.  Not too bad
  for urban observing, eh ??

    Well, enough gabbing, below are my data which covers pretty well the
  predicted peak times...
  ===========================================================================

                     LEONID METEOR SHOWER - 1997
                          VISUAL REPORT
                     Southern California,  USA
                    ----------------------------

  DATE: Nov 16/17 1997   BEGIN: 1100 UT  END: 1330 UT
  OBSERVER: ASSJO (Joseph D. Assmus)
  LOCATION: Long:117o 09' 21" W; Lat:32o 42' 53" N; Elev:? (3km E of PAC ocean
  CITY & STATE: La Jolla, California, USA  (~25km N of San Diego)
  METHOD: Counting/Manual
  ==========================================================================

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Period(UT)  Field(RA/Dec)   Teff    F     LM     LEO   SPOR
  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
  1100-1115   09:33/51deg41'   .246    1    5.2      2      1
  1115-1130         "          .246    1    5.4      4      0
  1130-1145         "          .247    1    5.4      1      1
  1145-1200         "          .236    1    5.4      9      1
  1200-1215         "          .237    1    5.4      9      0
  1215-1230         "          .246    1    5.4      3      0
  1230-1245         "          .246    1    5.4      3      1
  1245-1300         "          .235    1    5.4      9      2
  1300-1315         "          .235    1    5.4      8      3
  1315-1330         "          .240    1    5.2      5      2
  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Totals                      2.414                 53     11
  =======================================================================



  Magnitude Distribution Table
  -----------------------------
  Shower    -5  -4  -3  -2  -1   0  +1   +2  +3  +4  +5  +6   |TOTAL| MEAN
  ------------------------------------------------------------+-----+----
  LEO                    3   3  12   8   14   8   5           | 53  | 1.34
  SPO                        1                3   6   1       | 11  | 3.36
  ------------------------------------------------------------+-----+-----
                         3   4  12   8   14  11  11   1       | 64
  ========================================================================


  Limiting Magnitude Data
  ------------------------
  Time   Area  Count   LM
  ------------------------
  1100    3      8     5.4
  1130    3      9     5.6
  1200    3      9     5.6
  1230    3      9     5.6
  1300    3      9     5.6
  1330    3      8     5.4
  =========================================================================

  METEORS with Wakes or Persistent Trains (PT-duration)
  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
  #   Time(UT)  Shower  MAG   Wake  PT(sec)  Comment (L=~length)
  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
  1   1115       LEO     0      +
  2   1124       LEO    -2            4s
  3   1127       LEO    -1            2s
  4   1154       LEO    -1            3s
  5   1158       LEO     0      +
  6   1201       LEO     0            3s
  7   1202       LEO     1      +
  8   1205       LEO     0            2s
  9   1206       LEO     0      +
  10  1210       LEO    -2            4s     Awesome,White,Term Burst,L=20deg
  11  1211       LEO     1      +
  12  1217       LEO    -2            2s     Beauty,White,Small Burst
  13  1225       LEO    -1      +
  14  1235       LEO     0            2s
  15  1246       LEO     2      +
  16  1248       LEO     1      +
  17  1249       LEO     0            2s
  18  1249       LEO     0      +
  19  1256       LEO     0            2s
  20  1259       SPO    -1            2s
  21  1300       LEO     0            2s
  ===========================================================================