Re: Leonid storm!

Doug Jones (random@qnet.com)
Thu, 18 Nov 1999 11:33:26 -0800

Amara Graps wrote:
>
> It looks like we got the Leonid meteor storm. 2500 meteors per
> hour!! The predictions seemed to be right on.
>
> I hope that some of you looked up, and saw them.
>
> (I couldn't- it was snowing ..I'm very frustrated about the weather
> here....)

It was beautiful and clear here in Mojave- but by the time the radiant rose, the peak was long gone. I'm going to write to the folks at Space Adventures to suggest they do a stormchasing charter much like the eclipse chasers the have been done before. The 2001 Leonids are supposed to have a good storm due to the 1866 dust trail- see http://www.arm.ac.uk/leonid/dustexpl.html and http://www.arm.ac.uk/leonid/dust2001.html for details.

Last year was good here though- I saw about 40-50 an hour, with lots of big bright fireballs that left trails, and more than a few explosions.

--
Doug Jones
Rocket Plumber, XCOR Aerospace
http://www.xcor-aerospace.com