From: pauld@exploratorium.edu
Date: Sun Nov 24 2002 - 17:40:12 PST
Message-Id: <200211250140.gAP1eAa05248@isaac.exploratorium.edu> From: pauld@exploratorium.edu Subject: leonids 2002 Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2002 17:40:10 US/Pacific
Leonids Nov. 19 2002
Astronomers predicted that the earth would pass through a dense debris trail from
comet Temple-Tuttle around 2:30 AM PST on November 19, 2002, resulting in a
meteor storm. The only drawback was the moon, which was going to be full and so
would wash out many of the expected thousands of meteors per hour.
Last year I had seen the best meteor storm of my lifetime, with 8 meteors in a
two second interval, many bolides so bright that I could see my shadow by bolide
light, and meteors that left trails for such a long time that they were twisted
into comma shapes by high altitude winds.
Full moon or not, I was ready to watch meteors again. I was particularly
interested this year since this was predicted to be the last Leonid storm for
almost 100 years.
My wife, Ellen, and I drove for an hour south of San Jose, California. We left
city lights far behind and climbed into remote mountains where few people live.
One of those few people was our friend Joanne Karlton who is a park ranger at
Pacheco State Park. She was not going to be home and she offered us use of her
house. When we arrived at her house the sky was covered with high thin clouds, a
reddish corona of light surrounded the full moon, but I had hopes that the sky
would clear in time for me to see meteors. Ellen and I built a fire in the
fireplace to warm the house, set the alarm for 2 AM and went to bed.
We awoke at 2 AM, sleepy but excited and headed outside. The temperature was near
freezing and the sky was clear. We put on our Arctic down coats, moved our chairs
into the shade (moon shade) and looked toward Leo. We didn't have to wait long. A
bright meteor streaked across the sky, and then another. The meteor streaks were
radiating out from the constellation of Leo about twice every minute. One bright
meteor made three bright pulses as it streaked overhead and left behind a dashed
trail which lasted over a minute.
I saw one bright wrong-way meteor that headed toward Leo instead of away from
Leo. Not a Leonid but a fine sight.
Between 2:15 AM and 3:15 AM I saw 120 meteors. It was the second best meteor
shower I have ever seen. There were about a tenth as many meteors as in 2001. But
it was worth the trip out into the cold night sky.
At 4 AM we packed it in and headed back to the warmth of the house happy to have
seen the trails of light radiating across the sky. They definitely gave me the
feeling that the earth was moving through space at a high velocity, it was
reminiscent of driving across the great central valley of California in the
summer and watching bright streaks of bugs flying through the car headlights.
Except, the meteor-bugs made their own light as they collided at high speed with
the earth's upper atmosphere and flashed into incandescence.
Paul Doherty
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