Subj: [earthchanges] Leonids from Tennessee - WOW Date: 98-11-17 14:53:02 EST From: ChainedLightning@X-Perts.Com (ChainedLightning) Reply-to: earthchanges@onelist.com To: ChainedLightning@X-Perts.Com From: ChainedLightning@X-Perts.Com (ChainedLightning) I live in Chattanooga, TN and my husband and I both made arrangements months ago to be off Tuesday and Wednesday so we could watch the Leonids. It was soooo cloudy here last night, and fog so bad you could barely see street signs. I was watching the maps of cloud coverage at www.weather.com all day Monday. I left work at 4:00 and came home and went to sleep. Monday night - decision time. My husband and I realized we were only about two hours from a clear sky, but we also realized we would have to go to a mountain to get above the fog. SO - we left the house at 11:00 and drove three hours and stood on a mountain in the middle of no-where and saw a zillion stars and several hundred shooting stars -- and about 30 fireballs. The drive there was really nerve racking - dense fog on a two lane mountain road. When we finally broke through the fog and saw one of the clearest skys I've ever seen.... WOW ! ! ! The meteors were not all originating from the same spot - they came from all points of the compass and went in all different directions. Some of them left vapor trails that lasted as long as 40 seconds or so, and some of them appeared to be the same size and left no trail at all. On two occasions I would have sworn that they hit something in mid-air. My husband even went so far as to notate the times in case a satellite had been knocked out we could say we had seen it being hit. One of them turned so many colors - I saw greens and oranges and reds as it streaked across the sky, yet my husband saw blues and yellows. It would be interesting to have our vision tested to see if we pick up different frequencies with our eyes. Once upon a time I wore glasses and decided it was kind of silly since the brain interprets what our eyes see so there is no reason the brain can't interpret it in focus... so I did some eye exercises and some energy work and now have better than 20/20 vision. My husband wears contacts... so it is possible the contacts bent the light differently. At any rate it was interesting that we saw different colors in it. I also could have sworn that I heard one of them. It was directly overhead, and sounded kind of like someone hitting a 55 gallon plastic drum lightly with one finger - that's as close as I can get to the sound. It was a magical night. We will be going out again tonight - the sky should be clear so we won't have to drive so far tonight. Christy P.S. I had on two pair of long johns under regular clothes, a polar tech top, polar tech mittens, poly-prop sock liners under polar fleece socks, and my hiking boots. We were on a mountain and the temperatures were probably in the high 30's with a cold wind blowing. I got a little chilly but never really got cold. If you go out to look then by all means dress warmly. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subj: leonids Subj: more leonids Date: 98-11-16 23:38:40 EST From: shard@timeshard.u-net.com (shard) To: phikent@aol.com 4.00am.>4.20am gmt liverpool england leo is higher in the sky now and the haze had cleared its icy saw 30 bright meteors in 20 mins about a third were fire balls some orange some blue white some green many left visible vapour trails that persist a second or two shard regards si ---------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 98-11-16 21:58:49 EST From: shard@timeshard.u-net.com (shard) To: phikent@aol.com 2.00am 2.45am gmt liverpool england 40 meteorites observed skies clear but hazy with city light smog mostly orange leaving trails some explode as fireballs (bolides i think) some definitely green acouple were bright enough to cast shadows radiant around regulus? in leo no noise detected but im in a city definitely worth a look when leo rises where you are hope its abit warmer wher u r shard regards si ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subj: damn! Date: 98-11-16 20:24:19 EST From: DFranck To: Phikent Subject: LEONID FIREBALLS GALORE !!! Nov 15/16 GEOZAY From: geozay@aol.com (GeoZay) Date: 16 Nov 1998 09:50:33 EST Meteor/Leonid observations for the night of Nov 15/16, 1998 From Descanso, California, San Diego County I just got back from the best meteor shower I've ever witnessed. I observed from my descanso, calif. observatory under clear skies with bob lunsford. I have a teff of about 7.5 hours and an LM near 6.0 for most of the night. I plotted until about midnight and then just record data without plotting. I recorded a total of 140 meteors. 77 were leonids, 31 N. Taurids, 2 S. Taurids and 30 sporadics. But!! out of the 77 leonids I recorded 25 fireballs. I also recorded a brilliant N. Taurid fireball with a magnitude of -12. I thought that was gonna be the highlight of the night...but it didn't even come close. The magnitudes of the leonid fireballs are as follows: -3,-3,-3,-3,-3, -4,-4,-4,-4, -5,-5,-5, -6,-6,-6,-6, -7,-7,-7, -8,-8, -10, -12, -12, -15 The trains lasted quite long for a lot of them. One -7 had a train last 30 seconds, then the other two -7's had trains lasting over 100 seconds each, one of the -8's train lasted over 100 seconds as well. The -10 had a train last 4.5 minutes and the -15 train lasted over 8 minutes. The -15 and a -12 had persistent trains that were of magnitudes of around -8 for a few seconds it seemed. They snaked and twisted all over the place. It was hard to keep count of their durations because often another fireball would show up. The -15 occurred above and behind us...the stars totally disappeared and the sky looked like daylight blue for a second or two. It was pure old excitement. I wanted to go to the bathroom, but didn't dare because I was afraid I would miss another fireball. The strange thing about last nights activity, there were very little dim meteors...that is those that were of around +3 or dimmer. Besides the fireballs, I also recorded three that had magnitudes of -2 and 8 were of -1 magnitudes. I won't have time to do my report for a few days...but I bet my mean magnitude will be around -3 or more? Never had this happen before. We were caught completely off guard for this kind of activity the night before the leonid maximum. I hope to be out there again tonight for the leonid maximum...if the weather holds out? Now to get some shut eye...I might have to do a road trip to an area in the desert near Yuma, arizona if that front comes down like it might...got my toes crossed. George Zay Descanso, California ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subj: Leonind Date: 98-11-16 10:03:16 EST From: leeo@ieway.com (lee orsborn) To: phikent@aol.com Hi Kent , We have one more to report 9:30 pm local time Spokane WA. A large brilliant white fire ball with a trail 30 degrees long .The size, was the width of a pencil held at arms length. Very high velocity. Traveled from the east , 60 degrees high in an apparent movement of straight down it disappeared behind a house that was 15 degrees high from my viewing point . The way we measure 15 degrees , is arm extended thumb and fore-finger extended the distance between them is approx. 15 degrees . This was the only meteor of note here the rest were normal small streaks with no apparant radiant point . Thanks and best wishes , Tim Orsborn Leeo@ieway.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subj: re: fireball Date: 98-11-16 10:42:29 EST From: WESBENN To: Phikent Hi there, I just got an email today with your site url and thought I'd take a look based on something my friend and I saw saturday night while driving home. Because of the way the mountain roads around here twist and turn, I'm not sure of the precise direction we were traveling, but just guessing, it seems to me that what I saw was in a northerly direction. We were traveling from Oneonta, NY to home about 19 miles away. It was honestly the brightest and largest "shooting star" we had ever seen. Normally, the shooting stars I've seen travel more across the sky...this one seemed to drop straight down...but that could be due to the angle I was viewing from. What struck me odd was that it fell ahead of us, so that I saw it out the front window of the car...at night of course, I have my headlights on and I still saw this this fairly clearly. I'll watch for more over the next couple nights. If you have more info, please send it one to me! Thanks! Wes Bennett WESBENN@aol.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- Subj: KENT:WEIRD STUFF IN THE SKY NY Date: 98-11-14 13:46:46 EST From: ravenlmr@earthlink.net (I2AVEN) To: Phikent@aol.com (Kent Steadman) Kent...hi. Gotta tell ya there was weird stuff at my house in the sky last night as well. I live in Logan NY ...about two hours from Syracuse.It all started when my husband went out to look at the sky with his binoculars about 7 or 8pm. He came back in and was freaking. He said he saw like five ufos or something. They were doing strange manuvers in the air and he said a jet came and gave chase to one. He wanted me to come out and look so I did. What I saw is really freakin weird. Keep in mind these were not visible with the naked eye(10x50 binocs) I was looking up and I thought that the stars were squiggling around because my hands were shaking from the cold when I realized that the real stars were STILL and what I was seeing was something else all together. These objects were like white balls that moved very quickly and erratically. The best description my mind can relate it to is like the way a child swirls a sparkler around on July 4....... understand? I was watching one when another and another came up right next to the first and did the same type of "dance" . Then one came whooshing right at them FAST and did a close fly by and kept going right over the horizon. They were everywhere man, it was awesome!! Even more awesome maybe was what I was originally trying to see that freaked Paul(my husband) out. Sorry I started typing and got ahead of myself.....He saw the objects originally but the really freaky thing he saw was HUGE. He described it like a comet in a fuzzy cloud and he really wanted me to see it. Well after the initial awe at the other objects I was finally able to focus on what he meant and I am telling you this thing was really huge and it did look like a comet in a big fuzzy cloud. Sorry I can't describe it better but be assured there was something there and I can only guess at what it is. My first thought of course was the visitors which are supposedly arriving or maybe a piece triling encke from the taurid stream that supposedly has huge chunks. I really don't know but would love to. I also do not have a camera for dark and since we used binoculars didn't think the video cam would pick them up either. any suggestions ?? I was really excited when I read the syracuse thing....let me know any other info asap...please. Luanne ---------------------------------------------------------------- Leonid? Date: 98-11-14 13:13:53 EST From: leeo@ieway.com (lee orsborn) To: phikent@aol.com Hi Kent , On tuesday last at 9:00 Pacific time . I saw a large meteor much as was described to you on the chat you posted today.  It was north of us in Spokane WA. 30 degrees high traveling East to west BRIGHT Fire Ball as big as thumb nail with arm extended . The trail was about 15 degrees and it passed from view traveling westerly . When I first saw it it was due north of me The colors were orange , white , and blue . Looked like fireworks. I am 55 years old and was raised on a farm in Nebraska and have seen many meteors but this was the most impressive ever!!!! Thanks and Best Wishes Shirley Orsborn leeo@ieway.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- 11/14/98 Syracuse, NY ---------------------------------------------------------------- STwang2: hey STwang2: gotta tell ya somethin Phikent: yea? STwang2: was just outside to view aurora STwang2: is minimal but STwang2: there are some rather large objects entering our atmosphere STwang2: saw one blow up STwang2: ball of fire STwang2: other crossed the sky STwang2: very large do not look like stars Phikent: jeez, get a camera STwang2: am freezing STwang2: don't have cameras that will work at night Phikent: guess it has begun STwang2: what do ya think they are Leonids supposed to be that big Phikent: how big is big? STwang2: atmosphere creating illusion maybe STwang2: put arm out STwang2: look at thumbnail STwang2: little bigger Phikent: that's big STwang2: I know could see fire Phikent: still incoming? STwang2: not long tail STwang2: so cold out here STwang2: fingers are freezing STwang2: could build a fire Phikent: put on a coat STwang2: had on two STwang2: is 20 Phikent: cloudy here Phikent: any sounds? Phikent: concussion? Phikent: kawhomp STwang2: some weird sounds I have never heard before STwang2: but don't know what they were Phikent: describe STwang2: have nothing to compare too Phikent: what direction were they? STwang2: vibration STwang2: hissing STwang2: traveling from east to west STwang2: both STwang2: heading your way Phikent: southward? STwang2: west, going west, actually northwest STwang2: just a little north STwang2: one exploded ....no tail strange STwang2: ? Phikent: alerting Todd he's west of you in Penn STwang2: could see pieces coming off of it STwang2: gotta get hot cup of tea, fingers are frozen STwang2: you there, what should I do STwang2: go back out..... STwang2: ? Phikent: go back out STwang2: you don't think it could be visitors, could it..... STwang2: you think it meteorite STwang2: s STwang2: hey, did one blow up Phikent: hope so STwang2: which STwang2: hope STwang2: ? STwang2: wish it were warmer .... STwang2: gotta warm up and drink tea before I go back out STwang2: been out there since I got off with you Phikent: alerting others STwang2: 9 year old is still up, antsy STwang2: don't want to alarm him STwang2: probably just a big olla' rock STwang2: not too big.....I hope STwang2: November is my nightmare month..... Phikent: hope they ain't nukes STwang2: nukes?????????????????????? Phikent: war's on ya know STwang2: don't even think that STwang2: take it back Phikent: took back STwang2: k STwang2: scare me Phikent: that's why I asked about sound though STwang2: what kind of sound nuke make Phikent: beats me, kaboom STwang2: no no big kabooms STwang2: I wouldn't be sitting here right now Phikent: did you see any interception? STwang2: when one blew up was weird STwang2: right over head STwang2: was orange-ish looking but when it blew up was white Phikent: okay, look, stop, now describe exactly what you saw in detail, important STwang2: like speading fireworks Phikent: how many, etc. STwang2: saw too Phikent: flying at same time in formation? STwang2: first one dim orange could see little pieces of fire coming off it STwang2: then blew up STwang2: big white STwang2: like fireworks STwang2: spread out STwang2: not humungous spread out though Phikent: then what about other? STwang2: baby up STwang2: brb STwang2: there STwang2: kent Phikent: it's 12:37 now; when did you see them? STwang2: how long have I been on with you STwang2: came to tell you as soon as I got in Phikent: 15 minutes STwang2: k STwang2: subtract Phikent: so around 12:15 STwang2: add 5 for standing there little longer Phikent: one blew up, that came first or second? STwang2: first STwang2: sorry still cold STwang2: before was anything Phikent: then how long til second? STwang2: heard really weird noise that is what made me look at sky STwang2: was watching aurora Phikent: slow down, when did second one come after first STwang2: came out of due west, second followed less then a minute behind first Phikent: what did it do? STwang2: looked higher STwang2: was smaller STwang2: but same color STwang2: orange-ish STwang2: not white STwang2: kept going STwang2: more of a tail on that one, slight tail Phikent: need to try to describe sound again STwang2: don't know how STwang2: never heard before was weird STwang2: nothing in my brain to catalogue as Phikent: did it have a pitch like a note? STwang2: let me think STwang2: wavering STwang2: loud STwang2: but not shrill STwang2: muted cymbal STwang2: don't know Phikent: a tone like a note on the piano? STwang2: no Phikent: did you feel it on your skin? STwang2: not pretty sound STwang2: yeah kind of STwang2: in me more then on me Phikent: the first one; how many pieces came off? STwang2: just blew up many Phikent: in all directions? STwang2: yes Phikent: or falling down? STwang2: no Phikent: any reaction from animals? STwang2: no STwang2: playing with me [animals] STwang2: as watching STwang2: but all around me Phikent: did any of the pieces come to the ground? STwang2: not that I could see STwang2: was not that close ......mean was big but not that big Phikent: okay, think we got a good report now. STwang2: what do ya think Phikent: Can I edit this and send out? STwang2: yup Phikent: see if anybody else saw? STwang2: spelling is terrible, gotta fix Phikent: I'll fix STwang2: k STwang2: still didn't tell me what ya think Phikent: okay hold off for a sec while I copy this STwang2: k STwang2: more tea ---------------------------------------------- STwang2: there Phikent: here freezing, must be 70 degrees in this house STwang2: oh man fingers are frozen Kent STwang2: 18 now Phikent: might have to put on a dumb shirt STwang2: not till summer STwang2: and I thaw out Phikent: are you cold? STwang2: there is a strange light to the north, man made...going around and around in a circle, very methodically STwang2: in the state land STwang2: have been watchin it for and hour Phikent: what the heck is it? STwang2: and dogs are acting up STwang2: are couple thousand acres of state land around me Phikent: is it a helicopter? STwang2: can't tell but light takes same path over and over and over again STwang2: one big circle STwang2: pointing up STwang2: am moving to the city the hell with this Phikent: light pointing up? STwang2: yes STwang2: could make a woman crazy Phikent: like a spotlight? STwang2: big old dog is all upset too STwang2: yeah STwang2: big spot light Phikent: pretty weird Phikent: how far away? STwang2: still going when I came in STwang2: hard to tell, lay of the land is very high big hills with little deep valleys, hobbit land....not to far off though STwang2: am not going to it STwang2: to chicken Phikent: just going to suggest that you go to it, heh Phikent: but not me, no way STwang2: thought it might be someone jacking deer, but the light is pointed up and not moving like it is human hands too methodical STwang2: machine STwang2: ? STwang2: anyway no more fireballs Phikent: UFO? STwang2: nah looks like man made light.... STwang2: humugous flashlight STwang2: so got a clue as to what I saw STwang2: where did ya go Phikent: here