by Paul LeFevre
The public hype over the Leonids (every news station in town had been urging people to go out to dark skies and see them) turned our usually serene desert observing spot into a three-ring circus Saturday night. I arrived in the desert at about 4:30 PM, and there were already 40 cars there...I set up my scopes, and marvelled at the continuous parade of arrivals that went on well past 11:00 PM, most with their bright on and accompanied by shouts up and down astronomer's row of "turn off your lights!"
The weather was not encouraging -- 80% high cloud cover when I arrived, with open patches sliding across the sky most of the night. It seemed there was always one area of sky that was clear, and whenever I'd point my scope that way, it would cloud up there and open up elsewhere. Sucker holes indeed! Still, I did mange to get in a little observing and imaging, working up to the grand finale.
About 9:30 PM a bright bolide streaked across the southern sky, and lit up the area enough to cast shadows -- leaving a glowing trail in its wake. We were all hoping this was a sign of things to come, and we weren't disappointed. By 12:30 AM, I had turned off all of the camera /CCD gear, and just sat back in my comfortable chair with my feet up, snuggled in my sleeping bag, holding a thermos of coffee, waiting for the show.
The meteors started coming fast and furious. By 1AM we were seeing more than 1 per second -- if you could turn your head around fast enough to catch them in various parts of the sky! The weather mostly cooperated, giving up huge open patches of clear sky, and only making us turn to see different clear areas a few times. Many of the meteors were easily -2 magnitude or better, and many left long glowing trails that endured for many minutes. Each moderately bright shooter was accompanied by a chorus of "ooh" and "ahh" up and down the packed desert valley, and occasionally a shout of "Oh, I missed that one!" The pace kept up well into the morning, with more meteors than any of us could count continuing past 5:00 AM, when I finally dozed off in my chair for a couple of hours sleep.
Finally, a meteor shower that lived up to its hype! This was easily the best one I've ever seen, and it was well worth the drive out, braving the weather, and the mid-30's temps. Great show!
I headed home about 7:30 AM after packing up my gear -- on the way out I counted 108 cars that I could see, with a few more scattered around the valley rim, and even more pulled off to the sides of the dirt road leading out, sleeping off a good night. The public certainly embraced this show, and I'm glad they got their money's worth.