From: Robert Lunsford, coordinator ALPO-MS, San Diego, CA Date: Nov. 18, 1997 I left town on Saturday just after 3pm and arrived in Barstow near 6pm. Lance Benner (from JPL) arrived shortly after me and as soon as Michael Koop and his group arrived we took off for Goldstone Deep Space Tracking Station. The skies were perfectly clear and I managed to see one sporadic meteor during the hour drive to our observing site. Lance had picked out an outstanding site located near the Goldstone airstrip with perfect horizons in every direction. It was interesting to see Michael and his side-kick Pete set up his camera batteries for a trial run. I was impressed with both the setup and the constant attention to the cameras both Mike and Pete exhibited. Due to the intense moonlight exposures were limited to 5 minutes and the cameras were constantly in need of advancing. The meteor show was very sparse that morning. From midnight to 3am I saw only 14 total meteors, 3 were Leonids. We decided to call it quits just after 3am and headed back to the motel in Barstow. After a nice nap (interrupted by the maid) we awoke around noon only to find mostly cloudy skies. Lance and I did some constructive work (watching the football game) while next door they toiled to get the cameras ready for another night. Near 4pm we all decided to take a drive to Rainbow Canyon to get some sightseeing in before it got too dark. This area was just north of Barstow and was the location we thought Robert Hawks was set up. We saw some marvelous scenery and a beautiful sunset with multicolored cirrus. We never did find Robert in any of the campsites but thoroughly enjoyed the trip. After dinner we all set out once again to Goldstone. After a quick side- trip to see the 70 meter dish up close we arrived at the airstrip near 10pm under clearing skies. I quickly jumped into my sleeping bag and tried to get a few winks before counting. I must have been too excited because I could not sleep so I began counting at 11pm under perfectly clear skies. Rates were slow (as expected) the first 2 hours of the night but began to pick up after 1am. Between 130-230 rates shot up from 8 Leonids an hour to 25. Most of the Leonids were of first or second magnitude with an occasional negative magnitude Leonid. LM's were getting better, from the low 5's to the middle 5's as the moon was reaching the edge of my field of view. Rates increased slightly during the next hour to 31. At 3:28 a tremendous Leonid shot into the northern sky and flared to an estimated -8. The train lasted 130 seconds and this seemed to signal the beginning of the main show. Rates during the next hour increased to 52 Leonids with many colorful negative magnitude members. One memorable one occurred at 3:55 when a -3 Leonid shot high in the sky toward the west. It was only 5 degrees long but had an intense green train the immediately began to twist and contort as soon as it appeared. Lance and I were able to follow it for 15 seconds before it faded beyond naked eye visibility. While all this was happening Mike and Pete were out in the cold advancing the picture frames every 7 minutes. What dedication! Their companion Sandra was shrieking with excitement every time a bright leonid appeared, and then she plotted it's path on charts. We also had the military at nearby Fort Irwin conducting war games and the flash of artillery and the delayed booms were an added spectacle to the overall show. During the last hour rates crept toward the one a minute mark while still producing numerous bright Leonids. I kept looking for an onslaught of faint Leonids but it either did not occur or the moonlight was too intense. Several sporadics in the 3-4 magnitude range were seen but Leonids fainter than +3 were a distinct rarity. We were forced to quit at 530 due to the advancing twilight but at least 10 more bright Leonids were casually seen during the next half hour as we packed and scraped the ice off of our windshields. We were all still wide awake so we headed back to the 70 meter dish to take some pictures of it in daylight. After another quick nap in Barstow we headed to Boron, a town just north of Edwards AF Base to meet with Hans Betlem and members of the two other groups. We had a wonderful lunch at the local Mexican restaurant and enjoyed comparing notes. At 4pm it was time to part ways and we said our goodbyes. My appreciation goes out to Michael Koop for inviting me to join his group. Mike, I'm sorry I did not supply you with more plots but it was often difficult to keep up with recording the activity on tape, let alone plotting. Also many thanks to Lance Benner for making the necessary arrangements, escorting us out to Goldstone, and sharing his outstanding observing site with us. Thanks for a memorable two days! November 17 0700-0830 UT 1.48 5.12 5 LEO 2 SPO 7 TOTAL 0830-0930 UT 0.99 5.45 8 LEO 1 NTA 2 SPO 11 TOTAL 0930-1030 UT 0.99 5.45 25 LEO 1 NTA 4 SPO 30 TOTAL 1030-1130 UT 0.98 5.35 31 LEO 3 SPO 34 TOTAL 1130-1230 UT 0.97 5.65 52 LEO 7 SPO 59 TOTAL 1230-1330 UT 0.98 5.34 56 LEO 5 SPO 61 TOTAL The data includes: Universal Time for each block of time, the actual fraction of time spent observing, the average Limiting Magnitude during each block of time, and the shower activity seen. LEO = Leonid, NTA = Northern Taurid, SPO = Sporadic (random meteor). MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS: LEONIDS: -8 (1) -5 (2) -4 (1) -3 (2) -2 (10) -1 (13) 0 (24) +1 (38) +2 (45) +3 (31) +4 (9) +5 (1) AVERAGE MAGNITUDE: +1.14 SPORADIC AVERAGE MAGNITUDE: +3.00 The sky was clear during the entire session. There were no obstructions and no breaks were taken. Time was lost for the plotting of bright Leonids. I was facing due east at an altitude ranging from 50 to 70 degrees during this session. Beginning Temperature/Relative Humidity: 30 F (-1 C) 46% Ending Temperature/Relative Humidity: 25 F (-4 C) 80%