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.
