Leonid Meteor Shower Tonight

Would you believe me when I say I started to look for this since 1997, since 1998 it's been cloudy every peak night, that's 7 years, at least tonight will be frosty & clear!

Wrap up well!
Keith..

Would you believe me when I say I started to look for this since 1997, since 1998 it's been cloudy every peak night, that's 7 years, at least tonight will be frosty & clear!

Wrap up well!
Keith..

Yup, I would!

I'm in exact the same boat!

Im shocked keith but at the same time im not..im in that same boat as well. Still very cloudy here..i hope it clears up later like they said it would.

done a 2hour watch in sub zero temps in partly cloudy sky and seen one taurid! So much for the leo-DUDS!!

Before dawn is the best time...the radiant would not have rose at that time hence no Leonids.

I had set my alarm for 03.00, it did its duty and i got out of bed, put on several layers of clothes and made myself a hot brew then walked out to the pitch. The pre dawn sky was great, freezing cold with a heavy ground frost, calm, completely quiet, it was a very festive scene and it felt like a very special time to be out. The full moon was beautiful in the west casting a bright cold wintery glow over the frosty landscape. Within 5 mins my boots where covered in white!

I did a meteor watch untill 06.20 despite the moon washing out the majority of meteors i still managed to observe 41 meteors in all. Most of these where Leonids with a handfull of nice Taurids thrown in. Many of the Leonids where very nice objects brighter than Saturn, many of which left glowing green and blue ion trains, one of which lasted for 5 secs. There where some highlights...

A very bright firery yellow mag -2.0 Leonid that burnt up above the SE horizon above a neighbours rooftop!

A nice mag -2.0 red Taurid with no tail that streaked to the south into a Orion.

A fabulous mag 2.0 Draconid that very slowly travelled from N to S across the eastern sky taking 6 secs to cross the sky grazing the atmosphere with a red head and glowing blue train.

At the beginning of the session i got a visit from a beautiful small Owl that circled around my head twice (very close to me) in complete silence before heading north to continue its nocturnal hunt, i think we suprised each other.
A brillant iridum satellite flared up low in the north within Hercules, it looked like a Supernova. Even though the activity was low i still enjoyed this session very much and i feel the Leonids will have more to deliver in the days ahead. I look forward to dawn tommorow!

Clear skies!