Mark Pollock
Renfrewshire

In preparing for going out, I checked the latest satellite images which showed thin high level cloud over most of southern central Scotland. But getting outdoors showed large clear gaps with only barely detectable hazy patches.

I jumped in the car and went Loch Lomond side only to find fog. So I cut across country and went to Stockiemuir, north of Milngavie, where I was able to find a car parking space which gave a good horizon everywhere except west.  I was using a small forest to block the moonlight behind me.

Observing started about 0325 and gave me plenty of time to set up the video camera on the tripod inside the car looking through the open sunroof. The horizons seemed to be surrounded by cloud of various density but it was clear overhead where it mattered most.  Winds were light from E/NE and atmosphere was remarkably still. I estimated that the bright moon reduced the visible limit to +3.5  maybe even pushing +4 at times.

With flask of coffee to hand, peripheral vision started to pick up many fainter meteors then one really bright one with a persistant train for 2 or 3 seconds which streaked through Gemini.  Boy, were these things fast !!!  I aimed the camera at that spot and started recording. On LP, the tape would give me one & half hours recording time. I wasn't getting much on camera in Gemini and I was seeing more fainter ones to the north of the radiant and through Ursa Maj. Decided to aim just north of radiant with gamma leonis in bottom right of frame which took in the feet of the bear as well. 0356 hrs there was a burst of activity which lasted about 10 or 11 minutes during which time I estimated there was a visual meteor every second or so. Unfortunately, only a few within the camera frame.   Distinct lack of fireballs though !!

There followed a period of apparent inactivity from 0410 to 0420 with nothing much happening anywhwere in the sky. Then it exploded. I was counting 3 or 4 per second - most around +2 or +3 mag. Still no fireballs. This lasted about 15 minutes before abruptly calming down again. I remained in situ till 0500 hrs but there was to be no repeat - that was it !

The camera did reasonably well aimed north of the radiant with a number of frames looking good for potential layering and compositing. I've uploaded it to the image gallery of my own web-site at http://astroscot.bravepages.com

Over the whole evening, I saw only one fireball - and that wasn't even a Leonid.  It was a sporadic; came from the west, overhead, then disappeared as it reached the tail of the Plough. But it was bright - it left momentary shadows.  It would have been great to have seen the whole event without the moon there but, it was. They came, they went, but for me, the Leonids did not conquer as they had been hyped up to do. Impressive though it was.

Tried logging on to NASA TV when I got back home to catch the USA event, but the server was jam-packed and I couldn't get logged on.

Ian Martin
Renfrewshire

I awoke at 2.15 and went out suitably attired. Conditions were not
too good patchy cloud or hazy cloud. However I was rewarded early with a couple of bright fireballs. Soon became aware that meteors were never evident near Capella, Orion, Gemini, indeed best area seemed to be Leo near the radiant or in Ursa Major.
A distinct peak was noted at 3.00am followed by another at about 3.15-20. At 3.35 decided I need some sleep.

All the meteors I saw were bright greater than -1 many leaving ionisation trails. Only saw one faint meteor. Assumed that this was the effect of the Moon and the ever present haze. Due to cloud, haze and Moon decided against photography - film would have fogged in minutes.

Mario Di Maggio
Glasgow Science Centre

Yesterday (18/11/02) after the final astronomy night class (and late-night movie) in the ScottishPower Space Theatre, seven brave members of staff and four members of the public made their way to the Campsies Hills (10 miles north of Glasgow) to observe the Leonid Meteor shower.

Although conditions were initially not very promising, by 02:00 the sky had cleared enough to reveal a glorious full Moon and sparkling array of stars and planets. A regular stream of meteors (shooting stars) made the cold, wind and general discomfort more than worthwhile!

Despite the ever-present layer of thin, high cloud (and dazzlingly bright full Moon), at first we observed about 25-40 meteors per hour. Some were very dramatic with bright burning centres, at times multicoloured (red, white and green), leaving behind long trailing wisps of smoke. See attached examples of Leonid photos coming in from the USA right now (images courtesy of SpaceWeather.com at:
http://science.nasa.gov/spaceweather/meteors/gallery_18nov01.html )

Then, right on time, as predicted by the world's foremost Leonid experts, at around 03:50 the rate of shooting stars began to increase dramatically. We counted a total of 194 meteors between 03:55 and 04:25 - which is a rate of approx. 400 per hour.

Yet if we take into account that we were observing with a bright full Moon in the sky, as well as approx. 55% wispy cloud cover, we can safely estimate the actual rate to have been much higher than 400 per hour - perhaps 800-1000 per hour? Due to our viewing conditions, we saw all the big ones - and enjoyed an unforgettable and truly once-in-a-lifetime experience all the same.

That makes two out of two uniquely successful ScottishPower Space Theatre astronomy field trips since opening in February this year! One was on a Sunday evening (May 5th conjunction of five planets) and one on a freezing Tuesday winter morning in the mountains - yet all who attended would agree that sometimes you have to put personal comforts aside to see the Universe at its best.

Morton Henderson
Renfrewshire

After watching the weather forecasts all day I decided that I should head north. Ended up on the A9 trying to outrun the clouds.  Around 3:15am I gave up trying to find perfect conditions and settled for a sky with lots of patchy and hazy cloud.  By then I was only 25 miles short of Inverness!

Saw lots of bright meteors and some faint ones, but most of the faint ones would have been lost in the clouds.  There were a few memorable fireballs but I don't think I captured any on film.  Activity seemd to increase dramatically around 03:55 for a couple of minutes then died down again and I thought that was a somewhat disappointing peak.  However, it increased again
at 04:10 and remained high for the next 10 minutes, with sometimes two or three per second but certainly no more than a few seconds between each one.

Around 04:40 the cloud increased so I packed up and started for home. However, I frequently stopped in laybys for 5 minutes to check the conditions and they steadily improved as I headed south (typical!).  Each time I was rewarded with several Leonids, most of them pretty bright and many obviously green in colour.  As dawn broke I was near Pitlochry and the sky was almost perfectly clear so I stopped for 15 minutes and saw several more fireballs.

Similar to what Mark Hill said, I saw a number of point meteors and many left smoke trails.  There were also quite a few meteors heading TOWARDS Leo from the direction of Bootes.  Not sure what shower they may have come from?

Overall impression?  I saw many more meteors from the Algarve in 1999 but they were largely pretty faint.  My viewing conditions were far from ideal at maximum this time.  However, I have never seen so many bright meteors in such a short space of time.  Well worth driving around all night!

In addition to the meteors, I saw two Iridium flares.  Plus at various times during the night a deer, a large owl, a fox and numerous rabbits threatened to get friendly with my car's front bumper.  Fortunately there were no incidents!

Mark Hill
Renfrewshire

Hello all,  did anyone have a chance to look for the leonids this morning?

I was surprised to see it was clear around 03:30 and headed up the Gleniffer Braes south of Paisley, from around 03:45 till 04:10 the meteors were constant around 1 every 5 - 10 seconds then at 04:15 there seemed to be a burst of meteors which was impossible to count.  There were many bright meteors but no spectacular fireballs which had been predicted, these possibly came with the second peak which the Americans would see. With adverted vision the sky was full of streaks at the greatest activity many were faint swift meteors near the radiant. I also saw a point meteor at the radiant which was just a flash and a smoke ball. Activity seemed to drop and pick up again before the cold eventually sent me homeward.

Dave Gavine
Edinburgh

Leonids 18/19 Nov :  watch from Joppa, Edinburgh 0310-0500 in poor conditions, 3/8 to 5/8 cloud & patchy mist, moon, limiting mag about 2.5 to 4 at best, 101 Leonids, slight peak about 0405-15 then 0400, hard to say. Mostly mag 1 or 2, one at mag -4, one at -3, a few at -2.

Colin Anderson
Eaglesham

An unexpectedly clear morning on the 19th November prompted me to drive out to the moors to watch what promised to  be the last big Leonids of my lifetime.   I arrived at my observing location approx. 03:00 hrs GMT, but the real activity started at 03:18 hrs. I would estimate between 5-7 meteors per minute up till about 03:30, many very bright and leaving greenish trails which lasted for several seconds. At 03:24 there was an extremely bright fireball (estimate magnitude -2/-3 ) streaking South West.....fantastic!   A slight lull between 03:30 and 04:00 with approx. 1 to 2 per minute until another peak between 04:00 and 04:15 with up to 10 meteors per minute. Another bright fireball at 04:06 in approx the same direction as the first and just as bright.  
A great display and well worth the early rise!

Neil Grubb
Edinburgh

It was good to meet up again at Scottish Astrofest 2002. I did get up to watch the Leonids although I was somewhat restricted by being on call for the hospital that night. Nonetheless I made detailed observations between 0355 and 0500h, as follows:  

 
Conditions:    Not ideal, average 20% cloud cover on average, high haze with limiting visual magnitude 3.5. Viewed from Cameron Toll, South Edinburgh.  

0355-0400    10
0400-0405    17
0405-0410    12
0410-0415    10
0415-0420    11
0420-0425    18
0425-0430    6
0430-0435    6
0435-0440    4 (one very bright, estd mag -4.0, passed through bowl of U Major)
0440-0445    2
0445-0450    6
0450-0455    3
0455-0500    1 (deteriorating cloud cover)  

These are similar to the counts that Horst Meyerdierks obtained for the same period from Earliburn.