by Robert Sheaffer
I went up to the star party at Grant Ranch last night, hoping that the weather would hold. I arrived about 6:00 and set up my 11". There were already about a dozen other scopes set up, trying to show visitors some interesting objects between the clouds. I was hoping to do some serious observing before the shower, but the weather was uncooperative. I did get a good look at Comet Linear, which is developing a large coma. Still not much in the way of a tail. The high cirrus clouds turned nasty by about 8:00, and the dew was excessive, so I put away my scope, as did many others. However, I was determined to stay hoping to see meteors.
Gradually the clouds improved, and by 10:00 were mostly gone. By 11:00 we had sparklingly clear, cold conditions, and a magnitude 6 sky (just 20 minutes outside San Jose, but fortunately with a mountain ridge between us). We had seen a few very impressive meteors early in the evening. The show started in earnest about 1:00.
From about 1:45 - 3:00, meteors arrived in clumps, often five or six in as many seconds. The peak rate was certainly in the range of about 1000 per hour. Most were short, and near the radiant to the east of Leo's sickle. Some were very bright, and crossed much of the sky. It was quite cold - the dew had frozen on my accessories bag. But we had a dedicated group of about a dozen, with many other groups in the campgrounds or elsewhere in the park.
In the distance we could see a huge parade of cars all night long on the Mt. Hamilton Road, in some cases bumper-to-bumper. I can't imagine where all those people went. There are very few places to park anywhere up there. The rangers had closed the gate to the park about 7:00. (One woman was desperately seeking somebody with a cell phone that would work - apparently she had had a run-in with the tire shredder at the park's exit gate.) Some who knew where the star party was walked in all the way from the road, probably close to a mile. When I left around 3:00, there were hundreds of people parked alongside the road just outside the park. Many had set up lawn chairs just inside the park (which afforded a fine view), or even along the roadside (driving up into the mountains at night to sit in the glow of headlights!). In the distance we could hear their cheering a few seconds after a bright meteor appeared - somebody said it sounded like a sports event. We speculated how far away they were. I said it was about the distance that sound travels in three seconds.
When I left around 3:00, the show was still going strong. I glimpsed a few meteors even while driving home. Arriving home in San Jose, I went into my backyard about 3:45. While my disappointment at going from a magnitude 6 sky to one of magnitude 4 was keen, Leo was *still* producing a bright meteor every few seconds.