Jordan 1999 ( Leonids Meteor Shower - Storm Level)

Leonids Storm @ Jordan
Pre-storm activities :Lectures, Petra's Khasneh

Always curious about the flight path whenever I fly , so I make sure I get a non-blocking window seat. I tried to figure out the flight path/time by drawing a map on the back of a flight magazine. This time the Airbus took the Greatest Circle path ( up Peninsula Malaysia) and cross the Indian Ocean onto India. We flew over India with a great river in sight and approached the 'horn' of Arabic peninsula, passing over the giant Sand Dunes of Omen. The Airbus landed in a small country Bahrain facing Persian Gulf . The Bahrain International Air Port is situated on a small island with a link to the 'mainland'. Transit was less than one hour and I proceed straight to check-in. We changed to a smaller Air Bus and in two hours time I reached my destination - Amman, Jordan.
A twenty plus of us from various countries ( USA, New Zealand , Ireland, Armenia, Belgium, Syria, Australia, Iran, Iraq, Netherlands, Germany, Palestine, United Arab Emirates ) convened in Amman, Jordan at the invitation of Jordanian Astronomy Society. I was lucky - I approached JAS early October and was quickly added to the guest list as they are in the midst of getting representatives from abroad.

Right : I received a JAS Leonid 99 Plaque from Prince Faisal of The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. This day happened to be King Huessin's birthday. We visited the Town Hall and were shown photos in memory of him. The love exhibited by his citizens were evident from the constant throngs to the galleries. I was touched. Later we had a sumptuous Jordanian feast - 'mansaf' - "lambs- and- rice" served western style.
 
We spent the first few days attending conferences. High light include talks on Leonids dust trails, the use of narrow beam radar in meteor detection ( down to magnitude 15!), shown slides of Germany's 98 Leonids trip to Mongolia, Netherlands Leonids trip to South Korea and historic Leonids events in the Arab world. We also visited the Al al-Bayt University 16" SCT and a quick tour of the geological department/lab.
For the first few days we spent some interesting hours touring the Roman- ruins in Jarash and have a whole day trekking in the famous red-rose sandstone ruins in Petra. Visiting Jordan without seeing Petra is like visiting Egypt minus a visit to the Great Pyramids. The beauty of Khasneh is beyond description - the facade stand 130 feet and 92 feet wide carved entirely from the sandstone!


To reach this marvelous sight we have to walk 1.5 Km through a narrow gorge - flanked by 100 meters sandstone called the Siq. After a 1.5 Km walk through the Siq, suddenly through the 'slit' you see a glimpse of the Khazneh - the treasurer. The whole splendor of the Khazneh appear in front of you. You must give credit to the farsightedness of the ancient builder for intentional placing the Khazeh at the strategic end of the Siq.
Petra is famous for its polychrome color sandstone. The best examples I came across are as follow:

Salmon-like rock

Ceiling of the chamber - polychrome rocks!

Elephant.

On Nov16 99 we left our comfortable hotels and headed for a desert camp in Al-Azraq . We were assigned two to a bunker. The camp is a isolated place ( need a generator for electricity and water had to be transport here) in the middle of very flat desert plain. Nearby are two Bedouins tents with sheep and single hump camels. We visited one of the tent. Most tent is black made of from black sheep and is surprising airy inside despite the hot outside sun. We were treated to the Arabic coffee ( spice flavor) in small porcelain cup. You have to shake the cup from side to side to indicate you have enough coffee else you will serve continuously! We also had tea (very sweetened) served in small glasses.

Everyone get excited on the first night. Mattress were laid out on sandy ground, propped against chairs. Owners jealously guarding their territories. It was a quiet first night. There were few Leonids, I could sense a atmosphere of 'anxiety' and 'tense' as the quiet crowd continued their 10-15 minutes exposure.( Registering over dense star trails without any meteor trails.) Sand were everywhere and changing film is best avoided in the dark ( It will be disastrous should the film canister accidentally dropped onto the sandy ground).

Nov17/18. I decided to move away from the 'maddening' crowd, I set up my 4 cameras and one low lux video some distance away so that no one will be bothered when my Hi-8 video system spill some light. I spend the first half hours trying out my video system - video taping the M45 - Pleiades's and the 'Hyades'. Moon set around 12:30 am and the real show begin. As the radiant point was climbing higher and higher meteors started to appear and my first attempt to do a raw count was interrupted by a enthusiastic observer who came over and had a little chat with me. The increase of the meteor arrival rate were evident around 2:30am. The sky literally opened up and let out streams of meteors around 3:50am. (The predicted peak is 4:07am) There were meteors everywhere. The typical color is greenish yellow and terminal red only detectable in films.

I have seen 2-3 meteors per second! (others claim to see up to 7 meteors per second!). At peaks simultaneous 'star' burst of meteors radiated from Leo's Sickle and parallel bright meteors leaving yellowish,smokey wakes. The most unusual meteors for me is right inside the sickle - a short 'fat' small arc with fuzzy (yellowish sparkle). I presume this is the result of near 'head-on' meteor. When a bright meteor left a eerie greenish gray curtain like train - I was prepared. I swung my FM10 towards this and fired two shots. A blow-up on one of this shot revealed 'jets like' luminous streams. Three faint meteors nearby leaving behind horizontal greenish streaks. Sporadic seems to contribute little - the most interesting seen are two isolated incidents of pure white sporadic which looked 'curved'. Another is a head on by-pass of one Leonid and a SPO. Most of the time sporadic seems to have taken the back seats. The shouting from the group might have woken our Bedouins neighbor ( later we were told they too was witnessing the unusual celestial downpour). The high numbers of meteors struck me. Suddenly I realized that I was in the middle of a STORM LEVEL Outburst ! I shivered in excitement ( or was it the less than 5 degree C desert air?) and uttered 'Oh my God' in a strangest - ' possessed like' voice I did not recognise my own.
Around 4:20 local time , the downpours had reduced in strength but still meteors are falling 'softly' around the horizon. The crowds by now were so used to seeing meteors that they watch in silence, you can hear the synchronous 'Aaaah' and 'Ooooh when bright meteors appeared. Soon day light arrived. We were also treated to one or two deep red meteors in the horizon.
Then it was over. The predicted timing is dead CORRECT, the predicted place is CORRECT, the predicted ZHR is.. well - we have too many! ( No complaints).
Nov 18/19 - Everyone seems to be fairly contented with last night hauls. Most just sat around a bonfire warming themselves against the cold desert air. Not much observations were conducted on Nov. 19 and I had chosen to retire to bed early full dressed. I woke up around 3:30 am and began my solitary watch while others sleep.

Its me and the clear cold night sky. Leonid rate were low ( 1 or 2 per 15 minutes) and there were no unusual activities else I will kick the doors and woke up the rest.

We left the camp and headed back to our hotel in Amman. On the way we visited a nature reserve and two desert castles.

The next day we visited the world lowest point on earth - the DEAD sea, my Casio triple sensor watch correctly detecting a MINUS 400 ( correction factor of 45)  meters below sea level. Others enjoyed themselves with mud all over their bodies.

 Back in the Grand Palace hotel, some headed for the nearest Internet Cafe to find what others have seen and to upload results to IMO and others gathered newspapers and watched TV news of our 'Leonids Encounter ' in Al-Azreq desert camp. We were famous the world over! Sony camcorder owners gathered together and using my TRV99E as a master recorder we made copies of our tapes. (European models had their video in recording DISABLED!). Films were developed and the best include a 20 mm shots showing 70+ meteors. (The record still stay). We chat late into the night. Over the week end one by one leaves for home. I was one of the last and I left on Monday Nov 22 after spending an incredible 10 days in Jordan.

In summary I have exceeded all my personal objectives of this scientific conference / expedition - Witnessed the great Leonids Meteor storm, seen how radio meteors and intensifier imaging were conducted, met the scientists and researchers, experienced Jordan's fabulous rose stone Petra city, smoked ( just a few puff) of Arabic water pipe, visited the lowest spot on earth Dead Sea, recorded some meteors on both video/film. The most important is get to know others around the globe. Friendships were forged and I personally experienced the great hospitality shown by the host - JAS members from Jordan who ran 'an extra mile' to ensure we are comfortable and our needs attended to. The 1999 Jordanian Leonid Meteors Conference is a Complete SUCCESS!

A group foto at Petra. Me heavily armed with video cameras, film camera and digital point and shoot.