Chasing Cometary Debris

2004 Perseids@Bintan

2010-01-02T20:31:00.007+08:00

Perseids 2004 - Cloudy Sky Attempt - A Bintan Beach experience.

"..... towards predicted peak timing.. a handful of fast yellowish Perseids surfaced- but only a heavily truncated distribution of bright meteors are available to us. "
yk Chia Bintan, Indonesia Aug 11-Aug13 2004

After the legendary successful prediction model(s) on the Leonids, the meteor researchers had applied their similar methodologies on other meteor streams 2004- June Bootids ( foiled by bad weather in S'pore ) and Perseid. It was the 'first revolution' dust trail predicted to cut across earth on Aug 11 20 50 hr that caught my attention. A mini 'storm level' is even hinted. East Asia were favored and 'Luna' is not much of a problem. But one problem left - the infamous weather.

      Now where should I go for the show? It must be nearby and accessible and cheap. So I thought why not Bintan? But what are my chances? A check with Weather satellite map indicated a fairy high chance of clouded over at this time of the year. Even the peninsula Malaya was not spared.
      From Tanah Merah Terminal, Bintan Island is just a 45-50 minutes ferry ride away. The crossing was uneventful and we did not manage to shed off the white-out sky seen in S'pore. We hopped on the resort transport and found ourselves at the Mana Mana's airy but spartan reception desk. We were assigned Rm 15 but quickly found out the switch board tripped repeatedly - a obvious short somewhere. We ended up on unit #19. The room was a short distance from the shore line. Before nightfall we quickly checked out the beach. The sea looked calm. For the first night we decided to 'eat-in'. Dinner was served under the sea-almond trees the fallen seeds occasionally bombarding the wooden platform with a loud ' thud' sound .
     We tried the recommended Jono's Fried Rice, washed down with ice-chilled local beer - Bintang (Star) Beer with gentle lapping of the ocean wave in the background. Not many diners were around. While waiting for the food I had a quick peep of the night sky above. Using my palm to shield off the blinding lights from the spot-light angled in the trunks of coconut trees I could just make out the rival of Mars - Antares and the rest of the Scorpion's body.   Sky was indeed no better than back home. We needed miracle.

    Carina and friend joined us later in the evening. They too were disappointed by the weather. Around 1:00 am (s'pore time) we headed for a dark spot on the beach - now deserted. While the two girls preferred the more comfortable beach deckchair we had chosen to simply lying on the groundsheet. The sky was far from perfect for meteors: only a handful of stars shone through the high-altitude clouds.
(top) Bintan's 'meteorite' - Ripe Sea-almond Seed For nearly two and half hours of gazing at the lousy sky we killed time by 'story-telling' and even had time for red wine. Handfuls of visible stars were - the corner stars of the Square of Pegasus, the simple two-starred Aries. Lower in the elevation   Perseus / Cassiopeia were not even detectable. Hours passed, then out of no-where a yellowish meteor appeared on the west of the square as if announcing the slight improvement of sky condition. Then slowing and widely time-spaced the fast velocity Perseid surfaced. They were fast and white-yellowish in color.   Highlight of the picks was one negative magnitude Green Perseid that left a wake of 2 seconds. Then there was this pair of Perseids zipping down the eastern horizon near the edge of my visual FOV - with the peared shaped meteor heads and tiny short tails.   I expected a longer path length being so far away from radiant. They seemes to appear very spread-out in the sky: below Aries, eastern corner of Pegasus, and down the low eastern horizons. After logging a count of 12-14, then the clouds rolled by and the sky never recovered. In the east were old crescent moon with Venus close- by all looked pretty 'muted' by the sheet-like clouds. One video camera was utilized. And despite close to the water line , dews was settling on every surfaces . We packed and left the beach.
     In total I only managed 12 Perseids and 1 SPO in that window of ~ 1 hour, a very small 'haul' [ comparing to 400-500 Perseids seen by others in other parts of the world] but still much better than going home 'empty-handed'. Many explanations were offered why the slight 'reprieve ' towards the end of the observation. Is it Divine intervention? or simple breaks from the drifting clouds or simply plain luck. Or may be its the Star Beer. [ on retrospect - with higher ZHR, brighter meteor CAN be seen even through clouds... I remember one bright Leonid... shinning through clouds - it must be d*** bright]

Back home I ran the tape through the pc & visual inspection of the 1 hour tape : three perseids , some birds, an unknown bird/bat? doing a figure-of-eight flight( chasing after insects?) ,and one quick-flashing satellite. This latter man-make 'firefly' creeping pass alpha Pegasus. The flash pattern had a familar look - it was EGP (trajectory confirmed using Mccant's latest TLE). The other two video cameras were not engaged because of the suspected AGC response-related problems. Two Canon-T70 cameras loaded with fast films lied idle.

Second night Aug (12/13) was a complete wash-out. I woke up Aug 13 around 2:30am and stepped outside only to find clouds and only one star faintly visible. Another attempt at two hours later yielded the same poor sky. The scheduled 2nd night watch was aborted. The rest of Friday hours were spent exploring the beach and the surrounding areas. We took the 4:30pm ferry home and looking for the weekend rest.
A swift dim Perseid was caught passing zipping past Aries. Aug 13 am 14:20 (SGP time) Mintron+25mm lens. Note the few 'pathetic stars' visible. ( see left image)

Bright Meteor - Video detection

2010-01-02T20:01:00.001+08:00

OCT 10 2005 - A very bright fireball this morning 6:09am (25mm f0.95 lens).

A peak- hold image below traced the progression of this fireball. It probably had peaked and half of the other portion lies outside the frame. A deinterlaced single frame image was shown on the 2nd image. (The short streak is created by a passing satellite Okean-2 or 90-018A. A skymap plot matching the satellite vs background star is given here.) The bright star in the middle of the frame is gamma Vel at AZ=156d16min and Elev of 35d1min.

Single de-interlaced frame below shows the straight plasma tail trailing from the almost circular nucleus. The fireball took around 0.60 second to transverse the FOV.

2004 - April Two Comets C/2002 T7 Linear & C/2001 Neat Q4

2010-01-02T19:09:00.010+08:00

Apr 26 '04- I use my decade- old C8 with a hefty f3.3 reducer The FOV will be a meager 20-25 arc minute - may be just enough to show the nucleus and a small portion of the tail. For finder I used a 75mm lens coupled with my trusted watec 902H.

(Left ) - C8 with un-cooled Mintron - 1/2 B/W ccd and a electronic video finder 75mm f1.4 Watec-902H. Note the 3 inputs/1 output video switch.

(Right) Deep Sky Object Indoor - I pumped up Mintron 12V1C-EX to max integration ( x128) and the Eta Carina keyhole Nebulae filled the monitor. - April 25 '04. The monitor was dotted with felt pen to mask out ccd's dead pixels.

Apr 27 C/ 2002 T7 Linear with bright condensed core. There is a faint spray of tail directed upwards - [Mintron x128 overexposed the comet core.]

No telescope needed!!

Portable Comet Setup: x1 Mintron 12V1-EX, x1 Watec-902H, 2 video lens of choice, 1 miniTV monitor, 1 Sony video walkman, RCA cables, a fixed tripod, 12 volt sealed acid batteries and a dash of eagerness.

May 12 '04 - Wednesday - Arrived at the field around 8pm - big chunks of slow moving clouds were obscuring the comet. Even at this early hour dews were starting to form on the lenses. I resorted to using my shirt to dry the lenses. Cloud thinned 9pm + and Neat reappeared bright competing with beta Cnc -- a magnitude 3.53 star (see map above - 2nd date stamp tick for 12 may). Before I packed up after 9:30pm I recorded a short sequences on 'beehive' in anticipation of this May 15 drop- in by Neat.

(Right Image) May 13 '04 - Thursday Sky condition similar to last night. The faint cone of comet's tail can be traced to 27 Cancri. Dimmest star ~ mag 9.6. A handful of passers-by joined the fun.

In later years i fitted a Mintron 12V1 to a russian 300mm lens for a closer view. The set up is still portable.

Peleng 8mm

2010-01-01T08:46:00.003+08:00

APART from doing the Watec 902H video imaging of the Leonids I also tried out fixed tripod wide angle photography.I bought the 8mm Peleng f/3.5 Russian Lens about a year ago and had not done much with the lens. I was curious just how many Leonids could I catch. In addition the distorted view lend another unusual look of the sky. The lens came with a screw mount and Nikon mount.Since I had only one Nikon camera so it ended up in Nikon FM10 - a manual camera. [ unlike the totally unattended operation of pre-programmed 6 Canon T-70s array on my the other setups] I stood this camera together with another Canon EOS 3000 S.L.R fitted with a 15mm f3.5 lens (both needed a cable release but the latter with auto film rewind) on the same tripod with a super-plate to support dual cameras. The objective of these wide angle lens pairs was solely for recording bright very long trails fireball. When the film was developed in 4R I was not at all impressed. Attempt to use flat bed scanning only introduced ugly mechanical roller mark. Then I ask my photo savvy coworker for help. He scanned the negatives using a Nikon Coolpix scanner at 1350 dpi and the results was excellent. I 'rediscover' my 'lost' meteors. An example was attached here. The cropped image on the right showed three red color Leonids close to polar star in Camelopardus / Cepheusis border. Clicking the image below for a closer look and spot the leonids. Take a look around the oversize image and you will be amazed by the numbers of meteors picked up by the 8 mm lens. In it meteor trains were starting to show on the brighter meteors. There was even a bright red Leonid that get 'framed' by the a enclosed box structure. Many more were found hugging the eastern horizon. On the right edge was the white building that housed BOAO's 1.8 meter reflector.

2001 - Leonids Meteor Shower ( Storm Level) , Korea

2010-01-01T08:14:00.009+08:00

Dusk approaches but still bright enough to see the blue sky - two leonids graced the eastern sky.

For a tropical folk unfamiliar with high latitude constellation, recognizing the Ursa Minor took me some time.

SUMMARY - visual, video, film camera

Taurids /Leonids Long tail Earth Grazers- Early evening visual treats of Taurids fireball and fantastic long and thin trail (60 -110degree) Leonids lasting for a couple of good seconds - with entire trail visible . Not unlike the Perseids.At peak time the Leonids Arrival Rate - is evidently lower than the Leonids seen in Jordan 99. It was well below my expectation. I even delayed firing the T-70 arrays waiting for the sky to fill up with meteors. Eventually I did after realizing this IS the rate and nothing higher Leonids fireball - brightness / Persistent trains- What it lack in arrival rate it make up with high percentage of bright meteors. Also 'pairings' were evident where the 2nd meteor appears to follow similar or close trajectory of the first. I could not stop imaging that spatial density of the debris that got burn up perhaps were closely together - in clumps of frozen flake in the cool vacuum space before ending up in fiery flurry. Or are they coincidental in close line-of- sight? Five to six meteors were seen which left a visible tubular trains or 'glow-worm' for at least 5 -6 seconds. One lingered for so long that I was able to video record its slow dispersal. Flashed by one ground illuminating / shadow casting Leonid which lit up the ground from my behind. It was absolutely AMAZING.

Watec-902H & aspheric 3.8 mm f/0.8 auto-iris lens 89 x69 degree FOV or 63,00 sq degree (~1/4 of the sky) - a total of 613 meteors brighter than mag 1.5+ were recorded ( first pass visual play back count) in 1.88 effective hours (113 min). LM cutoff is >1.0 mag. ( Details see Leonids Video)

Canon 50mm T-70 arrays: A total of 174 meteors were captured in 5 /6 array cameras. Total effective exposure time is or ~216 min or 3.06 hrs per camera with a total coverage of 5x20x40 or 40,000 sq degree or ~ 1/6 of the sky.

Wide angle Lens - 8 mm f/3,4 Peleng , Sigma 15mm f/2,8 mm lens captured many multiple leonids. More than 30 turned up in ~ 1/2 hours of exposure. Many bright short or no tail Leonids were detected at very low elevation in the Meteor Rich Layer just above the horizon.

2001 I had the opportunity to join the AKM Meteor group from Germany and others to view the Leonid in B O A O, South Korea. Planning took a LONG LONG time since my last Leonid 99 in Jordan . There were three potential sites to go this year : Australia, China and Korea. US was left out as the prediction models suggested a grandeur encounter will take place closer to Singapore i. e East Asia/Australia. Australia could be a good choice but the thought of chasing for good sky on 4-wheeler is a little too much for me. Finally the choice became easier as Daniel invited me to join him in Korea. Plan B will be joining D M S group in China. Since then I had amassed nearly sixty kilos of instrumentation. For this year Leonid expedition I had only one objective -to view and record Leonid in the predicted 2 hours+ windows and that it is all about it. I know weather could ruin all these and ended up having anxious days looking hopelessly at satellite maps depiction of clouds drifting across Korea. For this short trip I did not plan to get Lonely Planet guide - no touring of any kind was planned this time. I kept my finger crossed and prayed for good weather. [.... good weather indeed!]

Nov 17 2001 - Departure for Korea

TV-reporter crew came 2:20pm. I had my interview on camera, video filming etc all done before 3:30pm. By 7pm I was on my way to Changi International Air port catching the 10:30 flight out to Seoul. The plane flew over China air space, passing Shanghai in the middle of the night.

Arrived in Korea new Incheon International Airport, Seoul slightly before 6:00 am. My aluminum casing caught the custom officials attention and after I convinced them the contents- cameras and stuff is my personal things he waved me on. After changing some Wons ( 1000 won = S$1.5) . I waited for others to arrive FOUR hours later. It was a boring wait. Lucas, Andreas/ George, Paul and finally Rainer.
A nephew of Mrs. Lee turned up and we took a bus to xx, have lunch and proceeded to another express bus to Yeongchung. By the time we reached there it was already pitch dark. Two awaiting taxis whisked us to the BOAO through the long and winding road. The taxis were stopped a few hundred meters from the 'top' and luckily others gave me a hand to pulled, lifted my excess luggage. BOAObservatory will be our home for the next few days.

That night we began observation after ten local time. While others scrambled to set up their instrumentations I chosen not to do anything but to get familiar with the compound. I met a group of local university students setting to do tripod photography.

Nov 18 2001 earth ploughed through dust-trails of Comet Temple-Tuttle resulting a grandeur view of the Leonids Meteors downpour over USA sky at Nov 18 10UT ,and repeat some 7-8 hours later onto East Asia. Initial estimate of ZHR( Zenith Hourly Rate) of 1000 ( or 2000+?)US and 2700 in East Asia. Up to 20-40 meteors per minute or even fifities (short period) were reported. While '01 ZHR is lower than '99 of 4500 seen in Jordan, sky gazer were enjoying a relatively 'abundance' of bright Leonids, some came zipping pass the dark sky in 'pairs'. The other bonus from the East Asia's resultant twin dust trails were the sustained broad high ZHR lasting at a stretch for more than 2 hours ( compare to just 40 minutes in Jordan 99). In 2001 , the actual rate was LOWER than the predicted (5000 / 8000). This put storm level prediction back to state of the'art' than 'science'. But at least predicted the timing is close enough to not missed the show. Its a pity whatever modelling refinement won't get tested till 2099 - by then the researchers and definitely me won't be around that long to test it. I bet despite the full moon next year 2002 - many will still flocks to view it since that might be the last chance in their LIFE time to view any leonids storms. Or is this year Leonids the last in

our life span?

Best Memory of the 2001 Asian Storm - "2001 ........ I remembered one intense colored fireball in the west, elevation 50 degrees, seconds later I still can discern the individual rainbow -colored segments lingered , slowly fading away. The color segment merged into a diluted pink , dilated and morphed into the typical broad based triangle , finally changing into a color of pale greenish gray. It was like someone had left the water color painting in the rain......"

Predicted vs Actual - The 'lower' than predicted Zenith Hourly Rate of the 2001 STORM LEVEL was more than compensated by the brighter meteors , fireballs and longer high ZHR . The weather co-operate also in the region ( China, Korea, Japan).

Nov 18/19/01 - Another night to remember - long trail and long duration earth grazers-fireballs -and more fireballs- persistent trains - ground illuminating meteor-
Spent the day time setting up my instruments - assembly of T-70 cameras, link up with T3 cables and loading ASA800s ( kept in fridge since 99) and set up video systems. Lens were pre-focused in poor Singapore night sky and tapped down to prevent focus shift.
Scouting a place for my four tripods. Not wanting to spill lights on others I selected a 'secluded' area half- way to Observatory's 1.8m reflector. After four trips I managed to haul all my set ups there.
Night descended -and I walk around to find out where others were - AKM were setting up their intensifier systems between the Solar Telescope and another small building. Visual count folks were just outside of the Observatory adm buildings: Some sat on chairs, some cocooned in sleeping bags or special reclining supports. Two or three were at 1.8 meter reflector up the hill. There are plenty of places to set up your gear undisturbed on good pavement.
Fog Scare Temperature was just 4 C and the sky was lovely. Then without warning large ominous looking billowing fog/clouds roll towards us hours before the storm. I look at my Casio watch - the temperature had soared to 11 C. The warm moist air condensed on everything in sight. Luckily the ponchos saved the 'night'. I used this to cover the six T-70 cameras - a move that save the whole system - as I later found out the 4.2 kg 12AH gel battery slipped my hand when I tried to take it out of the bag. The terminal slug broke my thumb nails drawing blood. This is the 2nd Kendrick anti-dew system for the camera arrays! So it was out of action - no dew protection. Luckily no dew was encountered for the rest of the night during the storm. Without the ponchos the condensation collected on the lens will freeze out!
'Plan B' or 'go some where' plan was hatched - The groups gathered in the adm block there are talks about going for a lower elevations to avoid the fog. A scout car was send down hill to check out the visibility. Meanwhile the engine of the bus was kept running in anticipation of a move. I decided to stay put - won't have time and energy to relocate the instruments. Luck was on my side when the fog/cloud cleared up well before 1400 UT.
Night continue.. Clear sky returned (LM mag 6.0+) The earlier film of water on ponchos had turned into ice!! In this sub-zero temperature, the RCA wires and 12 volt wire seems to have life of their own - they are stiff and can be held standing upright! I turned the Kendrick heater to high setting to keep the largest glass surfaces - the two fisheyes bone-dry and started un-timed exposures as I waited for my anticipation of the on rush of meteors.
Somewhere along the night ( was 17:20?) I fired the T-70s array with programmed 6 minutes exposure and 3 seconds delay (to allow for tape transportation with safety margins). And also aimed the aspheric 69x89 degree lens/watec-pair towards Orion. I placed both the recording video walkman and gel battery in a zip-up haversack ( to shield against cold). Train spotter camera-video pair (avenir 25mm f0.9/watec902H and EOS100) sat on another tripod.. Somehow only two video system survive the cold - the other two had battery problem - I had forgotten to zip the Orion bag - exposing the video cameras/Lithium battery to the sub freezing temperature.
Leonids arrived..., streaming all over the places. The radiant slowly climbed into view and for the next few hours we oooh and aaah and gasped at the bright fireballs - persistent train here and there. Most exhibit the customary green- yellow- red or just a terminal burst of yellow/red. A few were 'stand-outs' from the crowds: while most of the train observed lasted ~ 3 seconds there are exceptions. ( rough guess of one train every 10-20 bright meteors?) I remembered one intense fireball in the west, seconds later I still can discern the individual rainbow -colored segments lingered for a seconds or two, slowly faded away while at the same time dilated and spread into the typical linear arrow based shaped, changing into a color of pale green/gray. It was like someone had left the still wet water painting out in the rain. Two others were intentionally caught by 25mm f/0.90 watec-902H setup. A fireball exploded close to Ursa Major, a beautify arrow shaped train developed, distortion started to change the the beginning end into a triangular shape. Minutes later I re-look at Ursa and saw a unfamiliar nebulous comet-like cloud on the left of the Ursa Major. Seconds later after realizing it was the train remains I wasted no time to aim the avenir 10 degree video system towards it and recorded it on tapes. The smoke ring dilated into a pear shaped some xx minutes later. It was my first meteor train on VIDEO.
Ground illuminating fire ball - My first experience. I was facing away from the burst. Suddenly I saw the ground lit up - a meteor had exploded in my back. For a split second I can see clearly my Orion telescope bag, its content - as if some one had triggered a flash light.
Dawn slowly approaches - the leonids was still going strong. Slowing the sky brighten, Venus crawled from the eastern horizon. Leonids was still evident - many yellow dashes against the brightening east.

The DAY AFTER - At first I thought I can try just something simple tonight. Like a single video system on a tripod. But previous night 'dusk- to-dawn' observation had sapped too much energy out of me. I was dead tired and I slept early to recover. I dragged myself up to pack my single video system and gone back to sleep. I woke up feeling refreshed and re-charged. The loud snoring of our bus driver did not bother me. Breakfast on bread and two cups of Nescafe black ( no sugar). Lunch was simple also - cup instant noodle was fortified with sausage and washed down with soft drinks. Many used the late morning and afternoon to transcribe their previous nights Leonid 'takings' into standard IMO result sheets. Many recording methods were used : voice recording with background time pips from talking clock, pen recording of meteors ( count and magnitude) on rolls of paper tape, Hartwig Luethen's handheld PDA pre-programmed with 'tic-tac-toe like' quadrants . It is amazing people can do all these in the dark. The scribbling of meteor data on a roll of paper is a feat I never ever will master. While the stare-mode intensified systems will be analyzed automatically by famous Sirko Molau's MetRec.

Post Peak night ( Nov 19/20) I was told the ZHR -was well below 15 - so I didn't missed much then. I could have used this night to check out the Comet Linear 2000/WM1 but...We had a look in one of BOAO telescope dome. The entrance was so low that everyone had to stoop low and crawled in. A 10"? in Meade stood in the center. The set up was for the asteroids work I was told. Group photos were taken and the scene repeated itself no matter where you go - camera'person's mad run to set up timer and sprint back to the groups. Heh - the timer is 10 second long - enough for the top speed runner to finish the 100metre. We left with the hired bus to a town mid way between here and Airport. Since most of us leave on the Nov 21 1 pm. We won't be able to make the journey in time for the flight if we depart from here direct. The bus made a slow journey down the 1100 meter height through several hair-pin bends. On the way to xx we passed fields of harvested padi fields - with padi tied up like... beds of Korean cabbage ( where kimchee came from), apple tress. At a pee stop we get down to stretch our legs, some catch a few puff of nicotine. Convenience stalls lined the bus-stops catering for passing passengers. There are noodle house with stretch of bench w/o chairs where you tuck into hot noodles standing. a group of 'aunties' attract my attention to a 'kaki' fruits. Another collection of strange fruits photo for me. We arrived at the Royal Hotel and headed straight to a nearby Temple. Dusk is fast approaching. We passed hawker with their dried products. It was a quiet town with a few streets. Big plastic drums were filed with Kq left to soaked in saline. Crowds thinned as we reached the temple ground. The main 'star' of attraction - Buddha was under scaffolding. I look around for interesting pose to shot. I found the early moon and get a few composed shots. Dinner - finally we had something much better than instant noodle - Korean meals. Beefs and mushrooms on hot plates and a dozen dishes of vegetable things washed down with 23 % clear alcohol. That night I have a good sleep - pillow under my heads for the first time.

Comet Halley (1986?)

2009-12-31T23:45:00.001+08:00

Notice the nebulous Halley Comet near the Bent of the Scorpion Tail? My first comet in Singapore since 1980s

CA - Morgan Hill 1998?

2009-12-31T22:57:00.005+08:00

Cassiopeia - 'W' just above the tree .. pretty hard to make out in this star-studded exposure.

The tail of Scorpion and M7 near mid centre...fixed tripod. Morgan Hill , California.

Lick Observatory, CA after a horrid ride on a winding road.

90's attempt on Video

2009-12-31T22:33:00.000+08:00

Early attempts for astrovideography targeting moon: Video out, gnd and +12 v from board b/w lens board, pvc pipe and toilet-roll cardboard attachment to EP C5+ setup

90's Solar Eclipse - C5, x2 naked eye Comets

2009-12-31T21:46:00.004+08:00

Solar Eclipse & Sunspots Feb 16 1999 - C5

Comet Hyakutake (1996/B) 3/25/1996near a cascading strings of stars - from my study room

film camera peggy backed on C5+, Fuji ASA400, Eos 100, f/4.5

Comet Hale-Boop below. I recalled i have to ran to the school field before it set.

Fixed tripod

Leonids@Korea 8mm

2009-12-31T21:21:00.002+08:00

Leonids @ Korea 2001 50mm f1.4 Canon T-70 Array ASA 800 - 6 minutes exposure

2009-12-31T19:38:00.019+08:00

Tracing the Leonids backward and they converge to a radiant inside the Leo's Sickle

Orion vs Leonid

Canon T-70 6 - Camera Array -

Automatic simultaneous 6 minutes exposure sequence from x1 command back

In 1999 inspired by Robert Mc Naught's 5-camera arrays that I saw in Jordan 1999 I started to look for similar constructions in the web. The T-70 multiple camera system was pioneered by Robert Haas from DMS. The DMS group had been using this type of set-up extensively in their meteors expedition including this year leonids.

I was attracted by the automatic nature of the set up - so you can spend more time enjoying the meteors than manning the cameras. No cable releases were required and the 'command-back' of a single camera will control other cameras to have similar exposure duration and interval settings. This model auto rewind too.

The camera was designed to use little power for keeping the shutter open - a crucial factor for avoiding battery-drain problem in long exposure. I have decided by 2001 I will have similar setup ( minus the rotating shutter ) and special thanks to Robert Haas info on the circuit diagram I finally understand how to link all the cameras together with a 'slightly' different implementation. Two years had gone by and it took me more than a year to obtained T-70 cameras - grabbing them as they surfaced on local 2nd hand camera shops. The special T3 Remote Adapter is harder to find. My first trial order ended one was the wrong type ( T3 cable release adapter). They looked almost identical. I kept it anyway. Just a few weeks before this Leonid I finally found a source right in Singapore! By then I had only four T-70 cameras with standard 50mm f/1.8 lens (body+lens cost US$150). I needed more T-70 cameras. Finally I ordered two US and they came just days before my departure. Assembly is easy - I got a plank of laminated pine from D I Y shops, drilled 1 1/4" holes ( 6 camera so 360/6= 60 degree apart). Secured a ball head($US 10.00-15.00) to the board with 1-1/4 2" screw.

Cameras were linked in RING via T3-adapter - mini mic jack - RCA cable ( custom- made US$1.00 each). The six cables were plugged into a multiple RCA connectors with grounds all shorted, and the + shorted. I sat the whole set up on C5+ field tripod. I also weigh the whole system and it was close to 13 Kg! The cameras, tripod and the 6 ball heads took up most of the weight.

Result of the six Canon T-70 Array

Method: Six cameras with 50 mm f/1.4-1.8 lens were mounted in a 'ring' configuration. Exposure and film transportation time is assumed same over the six cameras. Program sequence is 6 minutes exposure ( ASA800 color film) and 3 seconds delay. The sequence is repeated until end of film. Upon development of the films, visible leonids are counted vs film number. Each camera had 3 1/2 hours of exposure. Camera was operated from 17:23 - 21:00 UT

Result of Leonid Count:

Iran 2000 First Gathering of Iranian Amateur Astronomy Groups in Esfahan , IRAN) An Eyewitness Account by yKChia, Singapore.

2009-12-29T21:23:00.022+08:00

SUMMARY : A small group of oversea participants ( mainly US space scientists, astronomers ) gathered at the ancient capital of Iran - Esfahan at the invitation of Alireza Mehrani, for a 7-days talks, technical exchange cum sightseeing. The gathering was timed to coincide with the 'brightest' appearance of Comet Linear 1999/S4. However S4 fizzled out at perihelion ( 2 magnitude dimmer than predicted) but remain easily visible ( with a short tail and bright nucleus) in low power binoculars. The group had the opportunity to sample the rich culture, architecture of Persia and had the opportunities to mingle with the local astro-enthusiast and the general public in various walkabout.

Barely a year after my Jordan visit last November 99, I again set my foot on Middle East soil. This time to Islamic Republic of Iran at the kind invitation of Mr Alireza Mehrani, the President of Adib Astronomical Society whom I met in our last year fabulous 99 Leonids trip in Jordan. Somewhere in late April we started e-mail correspondence on the coming trip and I expressed my intention to come to Iran. More e-mails as the July drew closer - as I started to plan for my trip, booking air tickets, reading up Lonely Planet Guide on Iran ( the only guide book available on Iran!) and other travel arrangement. I soon found out there are no Iranian Embassy in Singapore, the nearest Iran Embassy is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I took a flight up just two days before my departure and pleaded with the official to have my visa ready on the same day. Finally the day come. The mid-night flight to Tehran is via Dubai ( with 1 hr stop over in Colombo, Sri Lanka) for 9 hrs and 2 more hours from Dubai to Tehran. It was an uneventful flight and I do not have a window seat either. The air port in Tehran look 'modern' and I go my luggage without too long a wait and 'sailed' through custom with ease. I was glad to see the familiar face of Alireza waiting patiently outside.

   Day 1- 7/21/2000 Friday Tehran - I met up with Daniel Fischer, Yael and Fransco in Esteghlal Grand Hotel. To kill time before our next the flight out to Esfahan, we visited two nearby museums- Museum of Coins and Museum of Contemporary Art. It is amazing to find two identical face-value coins with physical weight differences of less than 1 gm! We later flew to Esfahan on a twin-engine Fokker jet.   We checked into the magnificent Abashi Hotel (later I found that it was part of the eastern wing of Chaharbagh School ) with a magnificent blue Dome of the Theological School. That night we had our dinner in the garden 'under the sky' with fountains and soothing background music ? Before I retired to bed, I attempted to locate S4 out of 2nd-storey hotel window with my 7 x 50 binoculars. After a quick star-hopping using the already 'tail-up' Ursa Major and in spite of the glow from city light, I kind of suspect I saw the comet - a slight smear with a stellar-like nucleus and a upward pointing faint tail. The 'faintest' binocular comet I have even seen.

    Day 2 -7/22/2000 Saturday Esfahan- Have early breakfast and heading for Convention centre to meet up with the Major of Esfahan. After a quick 'tour' through the Astro exhibition put up by local astro-clubs we were later ferried back to Abashi Hotel for the Official Opening Ceremony. Just like in Jordan the opening ceremony involved the playing of National Anthem , Praying and various speeches. So much for the formality.
    In the early afternoon Jamshids ( another of the Jordan 99 participants) took us for a walk to the nearby famous bridges across Zayande River in hot 35C but low humidity sun. Our elevation 1,500 m above sea-level according to my Casio triple-sensor watch. It is Summer now and the water level is very low. Workers wading in the water, clearing the water plants that choked the waterway. Right in the middle of the river there is a water fountain shooting water 40-60 meters in the air. On our return path via another bridge, I saw jets of waters shooting 45 degree into the river beds - perhaps acting as man-make giant 'humidifier' for cooling the atmosphere? Despite the apparent drought conditions, nearby flower beds and trees were well - watered ( sprinklers) system . Roads were tree-lined ( despite my asking, no one seems to be able to say for sure what species of trees were they) with tree planted strategic placed in the swallow open drainage system!

Later in the afternoon we visited some monuments in Iman Square - claimed to be the second largest square after Tienanmen Square and the nearby bazaar. The square is famous for its Blue-tilt dome. If you look closely around the square you will probably notice the whole square can be water-filled to transform into a large water way with fountains. Then you will see a reflection of the whole square with blue sky... The acoustic effect of the perfect dome of the mosque is amazing. By stepping hard onto the stone floor directly under the dome , a clear but delayed echo is heard. A rough estimate of the height of the dome using speed of sound gave 75 metres. ( ~half of second =>150/2 =75 meter height?) Meanwhile on the nearby bazaar you can find all sort of things on sale there. From inside the bazaar you can see small circular holes open through the ceiling of the brick vault structure for ventilation and I was told the place is cool during summer and warm in winter. (In Tehran winter can be harsh -6 Celsius) Water was sprinkled on the floor to keep it moist and cool. You would think the narrow passage is for pedestrian only but I saw motorcycles and even cars inside! This is the first stop for the 'foreign' participants to pick up their souvenir ( e.g chess-sets, pencil boxes, trinkets, necklaces etc.) and start to consume their thick wads of Rials. We stop for a ice-cream break. A group of young girls gathered around foreign participants asking questions and getting their autobiography signed ( with e-mail address request) - a common 'phenomena' according to Lone Planet Guide. [ up till now I have not received any e-mail from the various autograph I signed ].
   In the evening we had our dinner in the beautiful fountain/flower gardens of the Abashi hotel compound. While waiting to be served , I noticed a 'intruder' not far from Arcturus ( alpha Bootes) and soon realized it was an iridium flare, flaring to a whopping MINUS 9 magnitude - my first oversea Bright Flare. In reflex I quickly pointed out to Daniel standing nearby and mentally take noted the time and position of the flare for post identification[ turn out to be a south-bound Iridium #15]

Day 3-7/23/2000 Sunday

Morning speeches were delivered by Douglas/Alan/Charles and Bruce at Abashi Hotel. Douglas dazzled the crowd with his video-playback of 'sun-grazers' while Charles went through methodology of visual magnitude estimation of comets. Alan went through different slides images of the comet which bore his name and Bruce - a former NASA astronaut shared with us the many missions. He also showed us man-made object visible from space : circular irrigation plots of land in Saudi, pyramids in nearby Egypt and not forgetting the famous space-walk image of him suspending in space.
In the afternoon we visited James Mosque where we saw stucco work influenced by Mongol period. And witnessed portions of the mosque damaged by the Iraq bombing. We also visited Chehel Sotoun Palace with its marvelous fresco of battle scene in the afternoon.
In evening public speech - Charles Morris worked through his favorite top ten comets* with the involvement of participants. When he asked the audience for total number of comets seen , not many show of hands were seen when the number increase from one to three, apparently due to the relatively young age of audiences. In a slide on Ursa Major, eager audience wanted to know where was S4 w.r.t to Ursa Major. In Charles list - Comet Hyakutake ranked first. I couldn't agree more as Hyakutake indeed put on a fine display in Singapore sky - it was high up and was visible for many nights. I was following its progress from Scorpion ( incidently not 'far' from where Halley was in 86) to Arcturus.

Comet Linear 1999/S4 . Perhaps with Charles talk still fresh in our mind, the group decided it was never the better night to go out and look for S4. we headed back to the hotel ( for those who choose not to follow) and skip our dinner and headed out to a dark spot one hour drive NW of the city . The van pulled off the highway and the local group set up the Meade 12" SCT. It was already past eleven o'clock with comet 15-20 degree above the horizon. Despite the occassional blinding head-lights from passing vehicles, the sky was pretty clear( with milky way plainly visible). Ursa Major stood majestic with its tail up and I lose no time to locate the Comet S4 using my charts. S4 is easily picked up my 7 x 50s binoculars and the tiny straight-up tail was apparent. To confirm my sighting I asked another participants to describe the star fields. Meanwhile and Alireza called me to take a peep through the 12". Allan and Charles were busy doing their own estimation. Two or three meteors streaked through the clear sky. The dynamics of the burn-out trails had far more interesting view than the light smear from S4. Oh well. I also took the opportunity to look at Scorpion - M4 and pointed out to others the rich NGC6234s. Pick up Andromeda and the various globular nebulae in the rich Sagittarius region. Just before mid-night we called quit.
By the time we reached the hotel, it was already well passed mid-night. Luckily food are still available. We ordered sandwiches, soft texture ice-creams and washed down with Zam Zam Coke (Iranian answer to Coke).
Day 4 -7/24/2000 Monday- Morning - Two technical speeches were delivered by Eberhard Riedel and Daniel Fischer and Herman . Riedel video playback of the various lunar grazing occultation fascinated me and Daniel presentation on Meteor Storm and poster display brought back my sweet memories of Al-Azraq Camp in Jordan. Herman shared with us his fantastic slides of comets taken using simple set up - tripods and camera.

In the afternoon we visited more historical bridges - grandeur bridge than the one we saw in earlier day. In Esafahan bridges served more than just a means for crossing the river. In late afternoon, you can find the place crowded with people - sitting on the raised steps, enjoying sight and sound of the rushing water. There are also tea-house situated under the bridge. We later visited the Hasht Behesht Palace.
In the evening, Yeal and Francesco gave a marvelous presentation on solar system. We headed back to the Abashi hotel to had the final ceremony of the scientific section of the gathering. At the closing ceremony the participants were presented with a printed tablecloth and a Big coffee-table book on Esfahan courtesy of Esefahan Municipal Dept. ( the book proved to be a very valuable aid for identification of the various names of the mosques and Palaces).

Day 5-7/25/2000 Tuesday Morning is free. Woke early for my breakfast and change some Rial at the hotel. ( 1 US$= $8000 Rial). Afternoon we visited Vank Cathedral with its majestic wall mural depicting scenes from Old/New Testament ( no photography allowed inside) Shaking Minarets, Fire Temple, and one of the historical houses in the city. We had another peek at Linear S4 at Chadegan.- a resort nested in the mountains. After off-loading our baggage some of us heading to a nearby place to have another view of the S4. It is not exactly the darkest site but we manage to view the Ursa Major OK. Allan brought along his C8 and Charles with his Fujinon 7x80s?. S4 were easily found again in my 7x 50s binoculars. While the rest were looking at the Comet, I again noticed another bright -8 magnitude Iridium flare not far from Alpha Bootes again. [ Iridium #17]. The group went back and have dinners.
Day 6- 7/26/2000 Wednesday - We departed for Khansar and have a boat ride on a lake. (dam-up river) It is amazing to see so much fresh water right in the middle of nowhere. Very little water-spots are available and swimming was prohibited around the lake ( someone joking say may be it is allowed in the lake). In the afternoon we returning to Esfahan and departure for Shiraz - the gateway for the ruins of Persepolis.

Day 7- 7/27/2000 Thursday July 27 at Homa Hotel, Shiraz The group woke up early at 7:30 and after a quick breakfast left for a 40 minutes bus ride to Persepolis and zoraster - fire temple and nearby tomb. In the evening we visited the Tomb of the Great Poet Saadi. There is a spring running through with crystal clear water and teem with many fishes.
Day 8-7/28/2000 Friday - Morning visiting some gardens and a Sacred Shrine before we flew back to o Tehran at noon.
After a hastily said good-bye our US friends hopped onto another van that ferry them to a rest house while waiting for their flights back to US. The same night Alireza came to say good bye to the remaining four of us as he needed to be back at Esfahan . Ali and the other two person(s) will be left to take care of us ..
We checked back into Esteghlal Grand Hotel. This time we had a high floor - the 14th storey. At night with nothing to do and a poor light polluted sky, I attempted a few twenty seconds shots in ASA200.
Day9-7 /29/2000 Saturday. : Departure to the home countries
Visited Museum of Arts - where we were brief the art of making the colorful boxes. The design/patterns are NOT painted on but were sectioned from composite bundle of camel bones, metal strips etc. Later we visiting Shah's several palaces : viewed his personal collections of rocks and minerals, his gifts from the other world leaders and his costumes. I did my last minute souvenir shopping - picking up a pencil box or "Qalamdan" and small boxes. We had our lunch in an interesting restaurant. My kebab came served with different vegetable stuffed into a green pepper. We also visited another museum of the animals at the out-shirts of the city. We also had the opportunity to visited the late Ayotallah's place and witnessed a group of visiting girls gathered to listen to his teaching. For keepsake I picked up a Chinese Edition of his ideology and surprised to find the translator was an Iranian (instead of a Chinese looking name) and the translation is in perfect Chinese.

Tehran 'famous' traffic - I always marvel at the skill of the drivers who seem to know how to weave in and out without getting into each others way. Horns are not commonly used. You can see everyone convene at the cross-roads just inches away from collisions before one party decided to let the the other to drive pass. Motorcycles there sit three-or even four! ( and helmets are not required). Crossing a street is another challenging act. Luckily our 'guides' shepherd us ,and I always cross the street with herd of others - safety in 'numbers'. Environmental Awareness was evident in the recycling bins ( white/green/red) set up in the main streets. I also saw a large environmental emission bill-board showing the levels of CO, S02 etc in ppb ( all level appears to be below danger zone) despite the largely not unleaded petrol and zillions of vehicles. In the van , I caught a glimpse of the former US Embassy with with ' slogans' painted on the wall. The 'graffiti' looks fresh with recent paints. ( ..elsewhere whether in City or small town I have yet to see any graffiti at all! ). Since we were not told to look out of the van my interpretation is perhaps that is last infamous 'eye-sore' our Iranian friends wanted to see disappear. Back at the hotel- we stayed at the fourteen floor of the Esteghal Grand hotel with a small balcony, with nothing much to do I took the opportunity to do some night tripod photography of the city skyline.

Day10- 7/30/2000 Sunday
Historical Museum (Prehistoric) - There are numerous displays of stone-age cutting tools, earth-ware, etc Notably mentioned is the salt man***, his skull still with white hair kept in a large bell-jar. Nearby is one of his calf-length leather boot (complete with knee-cap and parts of tibia bone) in Zanjan 3-4 Century AD. Bumped into the Brisbane Aussie guy I met at Iran Embassy back in Kuala Lumpur. He was surprised to find me at the same museum.

National Jewels Museum. Situated at the side of the Central Bank Melli. After surrendered your cameras/bags, and walked down to the basement you will find the Peacock Throne behind a glass wall. Turn right and enter a darken room with heavy menace-looking 2 foot-thick armored door. The numbered Display Cases are guarded by sensor alarm. Once the alarm is tripped ( by sensor) the loud siren will sound and the exit gate will quickly shut. The guide speak fluently English and will go through explaining the background of ALL the display cases. Here you will find the 182 carats diamond: Darya-i-Nur or "Sea of Light " and a precious-stone studded Globe. There are other display of rare yellow and pink diamonds, turquoises, sapphires, ruby, pearl from Persian Gulf ( including one black pearl). Other items include Coronations costumes and swords, dish covers... I have not seen so much precious stones since my last visit to Tower of London 1995 beside the Thames.

Homeward bound Ali helped me to the crowded Check-in counter. There were still hours before the plane depart. After check-in the luggage I wondered around. There are not much 'shops' but I manage to pick up a coffee table book on Tehran for 260,000 rial and were prepared to take the rest of the rial as keepsake. The Air Bus flew over Esfahan and Shiraz en route to Dubai. At around 11:15 pm local time I was 35,000 ft over Esfahan and was wondering what is Alireza doing this moment directly under me. At Dubai, the McDonald's manager had never seen Rail and he agreed for me to pay my burger in rial! in return for two 10,000 brand new rial. In one of the duty free shop I saw a giant astro-binoculars for sale : Vixen 35 x125s for a listed price of $9,000 Dbi. The flight from Dubai to Singapore was full of homeward-bound Aussies from their holidaying in UK. I sat beside one German doctor starting a new life in Australia. Maybe the French Concorde tragedy was still fresh in his memory - he asked the flight stewardess why there were 'smoke' billowing (actually was condensation) from the air con system.
    The return non-stop seven hours flight was uneventful. I reached Changi Airport in a gloomy afternoon and was greeted with a blast of hot-humid air that temporary clouded my spectacles - I was home at last - our hot and humid Singapore.
Special Thanks & Acknowledgement& Achievement
I must congratulate Alireza Mehrani and his team together had done a marvelous job amassing such a complex itinerary which involved a AM presentation at Abashi hotel and evening public speech at convention town hall. And coordinating the sightseeing trips in various towns/cities towns involving taking two different domestic flights, land transportation, hotel arrangements, and visa extensions/flight confirmation. On top of these they are flexible enough to accommodate individual request.
And judging from the response from full house participation in public speeches and the close rapport and interactions between foreign and local participants I dare said the objective of the technical exchange was accomplished. Through the speeches and talks the audience were able to enjoyed a wide spectrum of topics from solar/meteor, solar system, comets, space travel.
It is obvious a lot of energies and efforts are put into the exhibition hall from local astronomical clubs. It might be a good idea to have them each presented a talk about their involvement and projects.
In my opinion, the gathering achieved its goal of bring people together to share and exchanged view point. We see for ourselves first hand the eagerness of reaching out.. despite differences in race, language, religion and political background. I hope this first meeting pave the way for more opportunity to have bilateral exchanges in the field of astronomy with - a field as old as the stars itself and Esfahan will in time to come become the 'CENTER' for modern astronomical study in Iran. I am also surprised to find the large number of female participation in astronomy - another example indicating the relative high literacy rate of the female population.
    As Dr Bruce McCandless pointed out - Earth when viewed from Space -there are no boundary visible separating one country from others. We all are inhabitants of the planet called Mother Earth.
The People
During our entire stay in Iran, all the people we met are extremely friendly to us. Even total strangers walk up to me and asked where i came from and wished me a good stay in Iran. One guy in Iman Square was eager to find out whether I knew a certain Singaporean working in the one of the shops there. I have to tell him there are 2.3 million Singaporean and quite likely I do might not know him. Another interesting thing I observe is, if you wave at anybody, it is guarantee that it will be returned immediately. You probably get a blank stare else where.

The weather while we were there - July it is the hottest month( hot and dry) to visit and may be I can blame it on S4's itinerary!
My personal triumph/'achievement': Viewed the much talk-about comet Linear S4 - my sixth comets ( two were southern hemisphere objects during my undergraduate study in Palmerston North, New Zealand - Austins , Bradfield; while the last three were observed from Singapore Sky- Halley, Hyakutake , Hale-Bopp and perhaps Wilson) but visible faint - first light for my Fujinon 7 x 50 s, chanced upon two -8 mag Iridium Flares!! , learnt how to like plain yogurt, tasted tons of kebabs. Saw a persimmon tree in Abashi. [ i remembered my first 'thrill' of seeing an apple tree one cold drizzling wet winter morning - at Auckland, New Zealand 1978 ]( sorry, as a tropical folk, I was fascinated how a temperate fruit tree look like]. I am not much of museum/ mosque goers ( hardly notice how one look like in Malaysia or Singapore with the exception of the golden dome mosque in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei ) but what I saw in Esfahan greatly impressed me and also it is a rare opportunity for us to be inside the Holy Shrine.. and last but not least - we get to know others in person.

Other Info of interest

Credit Cards: ( Diners/ Visa (not popular)).
Currency: US$ is accepted in top-hotels, while rials everywhere?

Food/Drinks: Pizzas, Kebabs/with fluffy short grain rice, eaten with nuns, (rolled with green vegetables e.g. mint, spice) , ice creams, Zam Zam coke, Zurphan, Pepsi.

Char/Tea Drinking Iranian Style : take a sugar cube ( two in a pack), chewed one corner and sipped tea, let the sugar dissolve in tea INSIDE the mouth, swallow tea ( what else).
Hubble Bubble: as in Jordan..smoke a water pipe. In Iran low and broad carpet-lined bench are used for relaxing under shades and while you puff away.

Fruits: Red water melons, honey dew, Shiraz small but sweet grapes, peaches, apricots, apple
Confectionary: Candy, dates etc - Kermani GUS- a soft white chewable sweet( with pistachio nuts.
Souvenir: Persian Carpets- can be expensive (US$200 for a 2'x1 1/2') , Pencil Boxes(40,000), Display Boxes.60,000-1000,000 rial.

Map: Pick up a Map by Gita Shenassi for 20,000 rial. I bought this one so that I can get a long / lat estimate for Chadegan for my Iridium sighting confirmation. However Heavens-above huge database included this town.

Power Supply: 240, wall socket - two pin (round)** for charging your handy-cam batteries. Some hotels TV had RCA video IN, audio IN ( to play back on TV screen)

Jordan 1999 ( Leonids Meteor Shower - Storm Level)

2009-12-27T17:54:00.012+08:00

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.

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

HTML clipboardThe 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.

HTML clipboardBack 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.