2001 Leonids Show
	Fellow CSAC Members, We got up at 4:00am on Sunday November 18th, gathered our necessities and set out for our Terra Ceia viewing area. On the way the kids looked out the windows to the dark sky while wondering if they would see any meteors this year. Last year we also got up early and went out to the Terra Ceia area and after an hour had counted about 10 meteors. We considered that a good day's viewing. I mean how often do you get to see 10 meteors in an hour? It's pretty rare. But of course we were still a little disappointed because we had heard it was going to be an exceptional viewing event. But still, 10 meteors are nothing to sneeze at so it was a good day. Remembering last year, one of the kids mentioned they wondered if we would see as many this year as we did last year. We were just a few miles from home when someone shouted, "I saw one". And in a short while again, "I saw another one". Good, I think we were all relieved that we hadn't gotten up at 4:00am for nothing. I t looked like we were probably going to see some. The rest of the way to the viewing site each of us shouted "there's one, oh wow, look at that one, over here too" or some other remark of excitement. By the time we got to site we had already seen over two dozen streaks in the sky. When we got there some of our trusty CSAC members were already there. They came up to us telling us about the brightest ones and the ones that left trails that lasted for 30 seconds and longer. Jeff came out of the dark with blankets wrapped around him looking like an Indian. His daughter, Sarah Catherine, said she couldn't sleep last night because she was so excited about coming out this morning. Their family had been out there since just after 3:00am, but may have seen the best ones. As I listened and talked with each one of our members, the meteors were streaking across the sky going in every direction from the zenith. We located the constellation Leo and sure enough it was nearly at the zenith overhead and the streaks were going out in every direction from it. It was good to see Hugh and his wife Sylvia. They had previewed the site a few nights earlier for us. We were glad to our friends Alan and Vickie who brought their family out. We saw them later in church and they said it was well worth the trouble.  Mark informed us that the International space station would be coming through just before 6:00am in the northeast sky headed east from north and being low to the horizon. Barney and Emilie had come from Greenville and were in the process of taking some pictures of the meteors with his 35mm by using very long shutter speeds. We hope they turn out and that we will get a chance to see them. We talked a bit but often were interrupted with one of us exclaiming, "oh man" or "did you see that" or "there" or having the whole area around us suddenly light up like a camera flash from the brightest meteors. Some left trails that were nearly 5 degrees long. Looking at some of the trails through binoculars they looked somewhat similar to jet contrails and were flowing with the air currents in the atmosphere as they slowly dispersed. In all, I believe we counted 18 people who were out there at around 4:30am. Several had come out quite a bit earlier. It was good to see them all and I personally enjoyed talking to and learning from each of them. Later, some of us talked about it and based on what we had seen in the area of the sky each of us looked at we estimated there likely were meteors that could be seen on average every 3 seconds or so. That would be about 20 a minute and 1,200 per hour. And Gloria sent out an email stating she and Art had counted 21 in a minute out in their backyard. So our estimates were very close from different sites. We also saw the ISS as it slowly orbited along it's path for 4-6 minutes before losing it in the light of the horizon. Emilie pointed out the morning star, Venus, along the east horizon before sunrise. I remembered there is a road in that general direction in the Wilkinson community called Morning Star Road. I wonder. It was a indeed a good morning being able to mix a very active meteor shower, various other celestial objects, a beautifully clear and dark Carolina sky with a truly memorable time with family and friends. I hope all of you enjoyed this opportunity somewhere. Memo to Pres: We need more club viewing events. Steve Bonner Pres. Carolina Skies Astronomy Club http://www.homestead.com/carolinaskies/