Leonid Meteorstorm 2002
A Trans-European Odyssee
Many month ago the decission was made to see the last leonid meteorstorm of
our lifetime regardsless how far we have to chase it. So on 2002 November 18th
at about 09 UTC in the morning a group of 5 amateur
astronomers left Mainz (Germany) southward, because that was the way to get
out of the clouds.
The first part of our trip brought us to Montreux where we met two other guys
from the German aurora
forum which joined our chasing group. We decided to drive further south, because
the skies should be clear in the Rhone valley. After another 4 hours of driving
suddenly the moon and some stars appeared in small cloud holes, but this was not
enough to get a good view of the meteorstorm. During a short rest and after some
telephone calls to our "home bases" in Germany and Switzerland, we knew,
that the only way to get a perfect clear sky, was to go further south and close
to the Mediterian Sea. Following that advice, we moved on towards Orange in southern
France, where we really reached clear skies.
Finally, after a 1000km tour through central Europe, we stoped and setup our
observing camp in the Commune d'Uchaux at 44.216 degree north and 4.795 degree
east (193 m above sea level).
Just during these preparations the brightest meteor of the night, a -12 magnitude
Taurid fireball appeared...and disappeared without a sigle camera running.
As everyone was ready, the leonids where falling in low to moderate rates of
about 10 to 15 in 10 minutes, which was about the normal leonid background rate.
At about 3 UTC in the morning heralded by a nice -8 magnitude fireball, the rates
suddenly increases, with leonids appearing in groups of 2 to 5 meteors in just
a couple of seconds. This increase in the falling rate was really amazing to observe.
If one looked arround, meteors where falling in every region of the sky, even
close to the bright full moon.
During the absolute peak between 4:00 and 4:10 UTC it was absolutly incredible
leonids everywhere and anytime. Facing the radiant in the head of the lion I could
really imagine that snowstorm like appearance of a real meteorstorm. Within 5
seconds a dozen meteors spread away in all direction from the radiant. Wow, what
a sight!
Now, after the peak was gone, the rates slowly declined, but noticeable slower
than the rise towards the peak. There was even a kind of post peak maximum, where
the rates climbed back to stormlevel again.
After about 4:40 UTC everyone started to relax. We realized, that we really observed
a good meteorstorm, even with a very bright full moon.
But what was that? Suddenly the number of fireballs increased. Within a couple
of minutes three -10 magnitude fireballs ignited a heavenly firework. Luckily
I was able to capture one of these big ones.
As dawn came closer, we started to stow away our equipment. One after another
the members of our observing group left the place and started their way home.
After another 12 hours of driving everyone reached his home and so the Trans-European
Leonid Odyssee was finally over.
To sumarize, it was really a great show, worth every meter of driving through
Germany, Switzerland and France.
In the following pictures and movies, I would like to show you some of the
meteors I observed during that remarkable morning.
The following videos were taken with a SONY Digital Handycam DCR-TRV230E.
With the videos 1 and 2 the SuperNightShot mode was used, video 3 was taken using
the simple NightShot mode only.
They are encoded with the DivX 5.0.2 codec which is available at the DivX
Homepage.
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