Leonids from near Houge Park, San Jose

by Jim Van Nuland

Mark Wagner wrote: > I went outside about 11:30 p.m., looked up at the scud around the > moon, the streakiness in other parts of the sky, the lack of any but > the brightest stars (Gemini was made up of about 4 stars) ..... saw > nothing to get excited about and, went to bed.

From my home 0.4 miles NNE of Houge Park, I have a spot with no streetlights in my face, and observed from 1:50 to nearly 3 am. Very rewarding, Mark; you should have come out. My grandson and I had to subdue the WOWs to avoid disturbing neighbors.

There was noticeable haze to the west, and a streak perhaps 20 degrees up SE, so I had dipper to Orion open, from lower Leo to zenith. Leo was 2 stars at the start; by the time we quit I saw the 3 tail triangle stars.

2:22 saw a blazer, left a trail for several seconds, one of about 3 that left a definite train. There were another perhaps dozen nice bright, and a few dozen fainter ones. Well worth the loss of sleep!

All times PST / UTC-8 hours.