Leonids at Lake Sonoma

by Dave Staples

At Lake Sonoma the Lone Rock parking lot was closed so we were relegated to the Grey Pine lot. I arrived at about 9:30pm and found about 8 cars present. The only other TACo's there (at least that I saw) were David Silva and his buddy Dave (can't remember the last name).

Within about 10 minutes there was a good coating of dew on everything I set out. Not unexpectedly it was a bright object night, after I arrived there was a steady stream of arrivals up to and beyond the peak of the Leonids. By 2:30 am there were at least 50 cars in the lot and more than 100 people, that was a spectacle in and of itself.

Clouds threatend to tame the lion by about 1am with about 90% of the sky covered by clouds that only Jupiter could penetrate. However, Mother Nature decided to be kind and by 1:50am the sky was clear from the west to zenith and by 2:10 it was clear to withing 5 degrees of the eastern horizon.

I had packed my scope up by 11:30 but before then was able to pick out (for the first time) 6 stars in the Trapezium, seeing was pretty good, at least until the clouds rolled through.

Those of us present estimated that the peak of the shower was around 2:20 to 230 with a couple people getting counts f over 60 per minute (3600 to 4000/hr), strictly unofficial of course. There were at least 4 to 5 meteors that lit up the sky like lightning flashes with people facing the opposite direction oohing and ahhing at the flash. For me the most impressive one came very early, about 11:20, streaking brightly from horizon to horizon. No other while I was there matched for length of trail and train.

While the weather was very iffy, things turned out well in the end and no one left disappointed, well at least not anyone who braved out the clouds and intermittent fog.

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