by Jamie Dillon
This from Sally James, who has her own TAC patch, having observed with Liam and me at Dino around my birthday last February. She and her swain Daryl live on Capitol Hill, under skies that might possibly get to 3.0 limiting magnitude, maybe. Ah well.
You would have been pleased with Capitol Hill this morning. About 40 of us gathered in the park right up the street at 5 am, and even in the glow of urban night, it was well worth the effort. As you can imagine, we rose early rather than opting for a Jamie-style bedtime. A local restaurant could have made a killing if they'd openned at 5:30 for a leonids breakfast special.The sky was far from dark, of course, but clear (until fog settled in at dawn) and we saw a meteor every half a minute or so, all of them huge with long streaks lingering in their wake. The crowd gasped and pointed and nudged, and I was particularly struck by how much of the sky they covered--everywhere from southwest to hard north.
On the phone later, Sally said those trails often extended well over 40 degrees.