Leonids: Orpington fogged.

[Rick]

I woke up and watched the fog for a while, but it was too thick to see any meteors through. A friend at work who lives a bit further south did get some clear holes in the sky, and observed 50 meteors in 5 minutes just after 4am. Any other reports?

[Brian Weller]

Hi Rick and all,
Biggin Hill wasnt too bad at 4.0am. I could see about 1/4 of the sky clear of clouds, buildings and the moon. Saw about 70 Leonids including 20 in the first 5 minutes at 04.00.
They were all lengths and brightnesses. There was one pinpoint meteor which looked for a moment like an extra star in the sickle of Leo and then faided away.
Took some photos but blew it unfortunately-
found afterwards that the camera was set to a very small aperture so probably wont get anything.
Anyone else get up for 4.0am and have any luck?
Won't be able to make the next meeting I'm afraid. Will be in Florida visiting my daughter.

[Greg]

sadly no. I witnessed the sky just before I went to sleep and thought, this has a very familiar pattern. I decided not to set the alarm.

[Mike]

I did get up in the night, but it was just grey overhead so went back to bed. As usual the yanks got the best views and they wont be back as good till 2099 !!!

[Rick]

Judging by comments on uk.sci.astronomy it was pretty good from the UK _if_ you could see the sky... :/

[Sue]

I set my alarm for 3 o'clock and wondered if I stayed up the cloud might clear. In view of the general comments I'm glad that I went staight back to bed!

I'm glad that Brian had some luck.

I wonder how Delphine got on in Portugal?

[Anonymous]

On 2002-11-19 12:59, Rick wrote:
I woke up and watched the fog for a while, but it was too thick to see any meteors through. A friend at work who lives a bit further south did get some clear holes in the sky, and observed 50 meteors in 5 minutes just after 4am. Any other reports?

I live in the middle of Sevenoaks. The clouds miraculously cleared at around 4am and I got a great view for half an hour or so. Must have seen 200 plus meteors, ie roughly one every 10 seconds. Some very bright , leaving a visible trail in the sky. Well worth getting up for!

[Sue]

Oh, dear! I did make the the wrong decision in going straight back to bed after all.

[Mike]

Coudl somebody please PLEASE invent some kind of device that blows clouds away !!! Please help me Camelot, I need to move to Hawaii !!!  

[Whitters]

Up at 3:15am to get a wonderful view of a fog sandwich, Ground below cloud above and dense fog between. Only recourse back to bed.

Brian I glad to hear that someone saw something.

I'm with mike on the anti-cloud machine. Recon that the cloud and rain god lives in the Orpington / Bromley area.

[Greg]

Quite by chance I saw fabulous Leonid streak virtually all the way across the sky, almost directly overhead, coming straight from the direction of Leo, last night from Kemsing!! (23rd November 2002 - around 5.50pm GMT)

[Delphine]

Sorry I put a message somewhere else but want to add a bit more having read your comments!   We had a huge thunderstorm in Portugal in the early hours of the morning - but as we were taking off last night 23rd at about 6.30 -while the cabin lights were off, I saw what I now realise was a meteor in the east.  First of all I thought it was another aeroplane but it developed a long tail and lasted about 2 to 3 seconds.