At 2:30 MST this morning (9:30 UT) we were standing in an open field under the clear dark sky to observe the Leonid meteor shower. The temperature was -6 C. The stars around Orion were bright. The planets, Jupiter and Saturn, were brilliant. Faint fuzzy objects like the Andromeda galaxy and the beehive cluster were visible to the naked eye. The constellation Leo the Lion had just risen above the mountains to the east.
The Leonid Meteor shower was spectacular. We must have caught the predicted peak over western North America. In an hour we saw over a hundred of meteors radiating from Leo. These included bright pulsing fireballs, flaming streaks as bright as Jupiter, simultaneous parallel streaks, short flashes in the heart of Leo, 10 degree streaks overhead, multiple dim flashes around the sky, sometimes several per second. Not a minute went by when we didn't see something. We watched for over an hour before the cold forced a retreat back to bed. This celestial display lived up to the predictions in the popular press, a rare event these days. I hope others around the world were able to share this experience. Roger Bailey Walking Shadow Designs N 51 W 115
