Leonid?

Know little of astronomy but i do remember
Nov 1968 stuck in a school hall listening
to boring speaches when the best display
of my life-time of Leonids was doing its stuff.


I doubt it was a desending firework rocket but as
i bothered to take details - if there is anyone collates reports
I was at 50 deg, 55.2 N ; 1 deg, 23.2W (St Denys,Southampton)
Today,Time 21.01.45 GMT if South West Trains platform info sigs
are correct.
NW from me descending about 10 deg from directly vertical

I saw it too from Bournemouth. ca. 21.02 GMT, vertical, proceeding
westwards, lasted about 1 second, intense white 'fireball' meteor

I would say it was almost perfect white with perhaps
slight blue if any other tinge.
Did you see the one or two smaller glow/traces
just before extinction?

What would the likely separation between the track and
Southampton or Bournmouth ,20 miles ,50 miles 100 miles ?

"Ronald Alpiar" wrote in message
. ..

I saw it too from Bournemouth. ca. 21.02 GMT, vertical, proceeding
westwards, lasted about 1 second, intense white 'fireball' meteor

"Ronald Alpiar" wrote in message
. ..

I saw it too from Bournemouth. ca. 21.02 GMT, vertical, proceeding
westwards, lasted about 1 second, intense white 'fireball' meteor


More to the point was the bearing from Bornmouth
still NW or N or even NE ?

all happened too quickly for me to make accurate observation

"Ronald Alpiar" wrote in message
.. .
all happened too quickly for me to make accurate observation


If i took a compass and inclinometer to where i was on the
night, i could probably determine to 2 degrees inclination and azimuth.
The point of extinguishment was just above a distinctive
disjunture in the skyline and i know where i was walking.
Agreed about too quickly as although it was almost
vertical i could not remember whether the horizontal
component was W to E or T to W

In article , Nigel Cook
writes

Hi Nigel,

Do you work in Winchester?


Know little of astronomy but i do remember
Nov 1968 stuck in a school hall listening
to boring speaches when the best display
of my life-time of Leonids was doing its stuff.


I remember having to sneak out of church-parade to see my first partial
solar eclipse. That's grown ups for you - no sense of priority...


I doubt it was a desending firework rocket but as
i bothered to take details - if there is anyone collates reports
I was at 50 deg, 55.2 N ; 1 deg, 23.2W (St Denys,Southampton)
Today,Time 21.01.45 GMT if South West Trains platform info sigs
are correct.
NW from me descending about 10 deg from directly vertical


The Leonid's radiant was still below the north-eastern horizon at that
time, so it wouldn't have been a Leonid. However, it may possibly have
been an Andomedid. There are some details of the Andromedid shower he

http://comets.amsmeteors.org/meteors...dromedids.html

If it could be classed as a fireball (-3, or brighter), then you could
report it following the instructions on the Society of Popular
Astronomy's site:

http://www.popastro.com/sections/meteor/fireball.htm

If you are interested, the predictions for this year's Leonids are he

http://leonid.arc.nasa.gov/1998.html

Unfortunately, UK observers will not see the first predicted peak (13th
Nov), as the radiant is below the horizon. UK observers may catch some
of the second predicted peak (19th Nov). However, there is a good deal
of uncertainty with the predictions, so it's certainly worth keeping an
eye on the sky throughout the coming week.
--
David Entwistle