Was It Really a Storm As Seen from the Eastern US Coast?
Below we give results of our sighting of the Leonids meteor shower/storm from Boston, MA on the Eastern US coast on the night of November 17/18, 1999.
On the night of November 17/18, 1999, the period when Leonids were expected to perform a substantial storm, we woke up at 12:30 am EST. Although we bundled up to keep ourselves warm, the temperature was at subfreezing point around minus 4 degrees Centigrade!
Our observing location was just outside our home, next to the
ocean on the southern shore of Boston, MA at the following
coordinates:
42 deg 18 min 45 sec North latitude
71 deg 02 min 45 sec West longitude
The sky was crystal clear due to low humidity, but severe light pollution from northeast-north-southwest (from Boston) and local street lightings prevented us to see fainter stars. Limiting magnitude (in the Leo region) was not more than 4.0. We shared the observing area between myself and my wife Gamze. She scrutinized to the east of the meridian passing from Regulus, I looked to the western portion. After having found a comfortable spot, we started observing at 01:00 am EST (06:00 UT).
We faced east, southeast where light pollution was less toward Boston Harbor Islands, and toward the constellation Leo. The first meteor was seen by Gamze at 01:04 am EST. Its brightness was equal to Regulus. The last meteor was seen by myself at 01:44 am EST. Its magnitude was about 3. We stopped observing at 02:05 am EST (07:05 UT), frozen because of the cold!
During our observing session of continuous 65 minutes, we
counted a total of 16 Leonids. Gamze had seen a dozen, I counted
just four. This means they were seen mostly to the west of
Regulus. Their brightnesses were as follows:
* one equal to Procyon, being the brightest, seen at around 01:30
am EST (magnitude ~ 0.4).
* three equal to Regulus (magnitude ~ 1.4).
* twelve were around 2nd and 3rd magnitude.
Altitude of the radiant rose from 25 deg to 30 deg during the observing session. All of the meteors had short streaks, lasting a mere fraction of a second. The brighter ones had bluish white color while fainter meteors having yellowish hues. We saw Leonids with lessening frequency and concluded that the storm peak occurred before midnight EST, over the Atlantic and in Europe which proved to be correct when we checked the web later after we got back home.
Congratulations to Southern European and Mediterranean observers who witnessed a real show, reminiscent of the previous storms back in the 19th century and in 1966!
OBSERVATION REPORTS OF LEONIDS '99 FROM AROUND THE WORLD
AMS
Leonids '99 Results, American Meteor Society
BAA
Leonids '99 Results, British Astronomical Association Meteor
Section
DMS
Leonids '99 Results, Dutch Meteor Society
IMO Leonids
'99 Results, International Meteor Organization
JAS Leonids '99
Results, Jordanian Astronomical Society
AMS Leonids
1999
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