|
The Leonid Meteor Shower of 2001Well once again the importance of being at a dark sky location has been brought to my attention. To see this you will have to compare the reports from Don Kemper and myself. I joined Larry at the Donald C. Martin Observatory which as you know is at HHS just out side of the city of Huntington, WV. Though what we saw was spectacular and dwarfs any meteor shower that I have previously seen, It sounds as though this pales in comparison to what Don saw from a dark sky location in Carter County, KY.
Well it looks like the Leonid meteor shower lived up to its billing as the meteor shower of a life time. In the time between 3:30 and 6:30 AM We (OVAS) logged over 700 meteors. The meteors were in every part of the sky. I'm sure the actual count was much higher. It will be interesting to learn if more meteors were seen by OVAS member Don Kemper who observed from the area near Carter Caves State Park ( KY) which is a much darker area. Though nothing like 1-4000 meteors/hour was seen, the shower was a most impressive show. The metors came alone, but often were in pairs or groups of three. Many times 6-8 meteors could be seen in the same general area of the sky withinn 15-20 seconds of one another. Groupings of 5-6 meteors per 10 second interval were noted as well. This event earned the name of meteor "shower". At least 7 bright "fire ball" type meteors were seen. Many more meteors left behind bright trails. Most of these "persistance trails" lasted only seconds. But, a few lasted for 10-60 seconds. These looked like brightly glowing comets! Larry Oyster had brought his 4" telescope and we pointed it at the brighter persisting meteor trails. These were seen as glowing trails with intermixed dark areas, presumedly smoke. Though the trails appear straight to the naked eye, they were more angular in the eye piece. It is as though the meteor was twisting as it entered, perhaps fragmenting and then slightly changing course. (I enjoyed the views of the meteor trails in Larry's scope. Too cool. Larry, thanks for bringing it and setting it up! ) The peak times of the shower were from 4:30-5:00 AM and from 5:30- 6:00 AM. The shower slowly built from 3:30-4:30 AM. A few bright meteors were still seen at 6:45 AM! A crowd estimated at between 1-200 gathered near the Dome(there may have been more, these were just the folks that we could see near the observatory dome). About 50-60 at the dome, 25 in the valley behind it. Many more lined the road going up towards the school. Cars streched more then 1/2 way down the hill. It looked like the crowd that appears for a HHS football game! An excellent turn out for what for many was the best meteor shower of a life time! I have never seen more meteors in my life. This is the first time that I could say that I really could see the "radiant" pattern of a meteor shower. At times when 6 or so would come out of Leo in all directions it began to look like one of those radiant diagrams in Sky and Telescope. One thing I'd like to comment on was the spirit of comraderie. People gathered in the darkness, talked in muted tones (well, everyone except me) and enjoyed the show. it was like a crowd for the fireworks on the 4th of July. A good bright meteor would pass by and the crowd woud emit collective Ohhs and Ahhs. I think that all of those who gathered inside the fence at the dome enjoyed themselves. I hope that the others gathered along the hill side did too. The "buzz" at church this morning was that everyone who'd gone out to observe was impressed and felt that it was worth the effort of getting up to see it. Even my wife who did a token 15 min of observing from out bed room balcony was impressed. Many thanks to those in the media who helped get the word out.
Larry’s Report from the DCMO Members present: Chris and Larry Oyster, Rodger Blake, Dave Tolley, John Walker. Tom Wilson was at the "bend" trying to photograph. Instruments: Larry's TV 102 on the Gibraltar. Primary observing targets: naked eye meteors. The telescope was used as a secondary instrument to view the planets and meteor trails. But are you ready for this?? An estimate of the crowd ranged from 100 to 150. Cars were parked along the entire hill from the top to the bend and beyond, plus there were cars in the parking lot. Many folks watched from the tennis court area, and another group was outside the fence of the observatory, just over the hill. I think the hillside blocked carlights from them. Chris and I arrived at the D.C. Martin Observatory around 3:15 a.m. Sunday. One car was already on site. It was a beautiful morning, and the constellations across the sky were bright. I did not do a limiting magnitude check, although I know stars beyond magnitude 4 were visible. The magnitude limit at that site is definitely determined by direction. The north sky was probably just over 3. (3.5 mag epsilon Cassiopeia was not visible.) Around 3:30 a.m. Chris began counting the meteors in his field of view. His cot was aligned with him looking due east, and using a pillow it is doubtful that many of the meteors out of his direct fov were counted. He counted just under 500 meteors by the time he called it a night. Rodger Blake and I continued to count until 6:10, and we stopped at 710. This is around 240 meteors/hour!! What a show! My guess is the actual count would probably be well over twice that number, and perhaps even as much as three times or more. The north view allowed only bright meteors to be counted, and we lose quite a bit of horizon from the south to the northwest. I counted one small fireball, and three very bright meteors. None of these approached the intensity of the fireball from Blackwater Falls Star Party in the fall of 2000. However, they were still fun to watch. It was obvious the radiant was Leo. Many times there would be more than one meteor in the sky at a time, and they did seem to originate in Leo. The crowd oohhhed! and aaahhhed! a number of times, and it was definitely a party atmosphere. The telescope was pointed at Saturn and Jupiter and even at 63x, they were beautiful. As always, the gas giants are crowd pleasers. One of my personal highlights was viewing meteor trails through the scope. Rodger suggested I try it, so several times throughout the night I tried to find them. They were nebulous looking things, with a three dimensional look. The wind turbulence would distort the smoke and curl it around quickly. It reminded me of the snake nebula. The longest I could keep one visible was about 2 minutes. While we were packing up, meteors were still visible. A couple were seen in the bright twilight in the east, and would have been very intense had the sky been dark. I checked my watch on the last one seen and it was 6:40 a.m., just a few minutes before driving off into the sunrise. Larry Oyster
03:00 WOW! THEY'RE HERE! BRIGHT AND FURIOUS! Going in random directions. Dim ones, bright ones, one REAL bright one. Then there was nothing. ALL the fog was gone. Very optimum viewing conditions for meteor viewing, still seeing was fair to good over 80% of the sky. Limited only by low level moisture. Later on it all vanished. I had enough time to turn my newly bought recliner chair upright and get my Civil War greatcoat wrapped around my legs and get comfortable and here came another surge of meteors. At this point I had counted 54 and I know I have had to have missed some. 03:20 Less random directions and seemed to have slacked off a little. mostly dimmer, normal looking ones. Still a very good show. Leo's head is 80-85º and I'm looking in the Leo, Gemini, Orion area but still taking in as much of the sky as I possibly can. Orion is getting a real pelting! The radial pattern is beginning to be more distinct. Orion's dogs and the rabbit (Canis Major/minor & Lepeus) are getting hits too, as are Ursa Major and Cassiopeia. I'm over 100 now and it is getting very difficult to keep count. There are "paint brush" smears that are short, wide, sparkly, thin streaks, great, big, bright dazzling streaks that glow for anywhere from 2-5 seconds! One at a time, two, sometimes together, sometimes on opposite sides at the horizon, three EIGHT at a time! Followed by three more- real bright! And on and on and on it goes! There is NO WAY I can keep count. I must have seen well over 250 by 03:45. My head is tilted up 85º usually toward the Gemini to zenith area of the sky. Eyes moving searching for the -next- one, or bunch. Over my head (N-NW) I can see flashes and when I tilt back a little further I can see the trails! There's no way anyone could have imagined this. The shower must have occurred early. perhaps it will be over by 04:00-04:30. 04:00 Still going strong! BRIGHT ONES! REAL BRIGHT! Worried I may lose my night vision- but don't want to miss it either. Must have spanned about 60-70º of sky from Leo towards Orion. They're coming in bunches, at times up to, I guess, about 8-12. It's difficult to see all the dimmer ones with the brighter ones. There's NO WAY to count these things. I'm guessing a rate of 130- 200/hour? They are definitely well within the 30/minute rate as predicted. ZInnnnggg dust and smoke- light up for a good 5 seconds! Well folks, it's just going to be repetitious if I keep doing the best play by play. There were perhaps 30 extremely bright ones from short "paint brush strokes" to upwards of 80º stretches. Many seemed to change course and speed- regardless of brightness. I must tell you that about 04:45-05:00 that a VERY BRIGHT GREEN - yes GREEN one went through the head area of Leo in a N to SW direction. I blew up in a spectacular explosion right in Leo's head! (Sounds funny, but the effect couldn't have been planned any better.) It left a smoke ring similar to the Ring Nebula that grew to about ¾ the size of Leo's head and finally started straightening out. My "high light" (Oh yes, pun intended.) of the night. Yet the show went on way into day break-~ 07:15. I could see some in Orion after that. How many? At a guestimated rate of 175 -275/hour, what do you think? They were already active at 03:00 when I got out of the Jimmy. They didn't appear to be active at 02:00. There was never less that a 2 minute span when I didn't see any, but there could have easily been some behind me close to the N- NW horizon. (I chose that orientation due to the terrain.) There must have been 15-20 times I saw the sky flash because one was out of view. Sometimes I would see the trail of it and miss others in the opposite direction. Colors? From bright welding arc white/blue, to red, yellow, and GREEN real pretty and very bright GREEN(!) and hundreds of "regular" ones that we all delight to see whenever we are out. Lots of smoke and trails. I don't know how long it took to put the equipment away, I was walking on air. (Actually very cold feet.) It didn't take long at all. Must have been in the 20's again. My hands ached with the cold of the ice (heavy frost) on the Cave while I disassembled it, I do remember that. I was starting to chill. Need more layers next time. I went over to the Lodge at Carter Caves and talked to some folks who had gone up on the golf course. They said that they went out at about six and saw a few! (A FEW!?!?!!? I thought to myself.) They asked me if I had "bothered to watch them." "Yes." I replied. "How many did 'you' see?" "Oh, about, gee, I don't know, I started about three in the morning- 900, 1000, 1500? How can I possibly know? There was way too many to count. Maybe at a couple of times about a dozen at once." The two women just looked at each other as the men asked where I was. Their conversation was apparently to the effect that they thought the event was over emphasized. I don't think the women believed me. I asked them where they were.. "On the golf course" and proceeded to point. Yup, not far from street lights. "Where were you did you say?" "At a dark sky site at the end of a gravel road about two miles NE of hear where's there no traffic, no houses, and only three lights visible, the closest one about ½ mile away behind trees. and the trees are about 200 yards away minimum. Low horizons." "Well we only saw about 30. I sure wish we had know about that place you were at." Other people trying to view from different parts of the golf course didn't do any better. Trees too close and lights too bright and close. Little do they realize what they missed. Sad, I would have gladly enjoyed the spectacular experience with anyone there. They would have too. Five other conversations just like that one before I left the park. Yet another At Mel McDowell's place. Two street lights there- about a mile from my viewing area. (Breakfast at the lodge was good.) Just got an e-mail from my cousin Darrell in Orlando Florida: " I got up to see the meteor shower and couldn't see a thing due to thick cloud cover and light rain. How was your view? Darrell" From everybody I have talked to, and the fact that I was all alone in a great big field with the whole sky, I keep getting this strange little feeling like I was the only one who "really" saw it, but I know thousands must have seen it as well as I did. It's just that I thought I would report that strange feeling. It really hit home and became more apparent after I had talked to a few folks. Like it was all for me (yea, right!) but that's just, sort of, the way it seemed. Really neat, yet kind-of sad. I feel strangely privileged somehow, it's hard to describe. Sort of like an "own little world" thing. Isolated and special. Reverent and spectacular. Unpredictable and awesome. And also, I could not help but think about the countless generations before us who witnessed such an event and wondered what they did and how they must have felt. Just thought I'd share that. It's just a very unusual experience, something the cavers receiving this would know. While I missed the company of the Dark Sky Gang, I'm glad I got that experience. I don't know what else I could type about it. This could go on and on. Sleepy and ready to nap, battery charging, and remembering all the great sights I saw last night in a dark sky site in Carter County KY,- I'll not soon forget, awestruck! Caveman
|