Leonids 2001

[matthewota]

In November of 2001 I witnessed the Leonid meteor shower at the Orange County Astronomer's observing site near Anza, California. Many were bright enough to cast shadows, and one left a train across the entire sky. Camera images of the meteors did not convey the appearance and color as seen by the naked eye, thus I rendered a drawing in PhotoShop. THe meteirs are seen coming from the radiant.

[GriffinBF]

Very nice!
That must have been an amazing site

[star drop]

That was a spectacular Leonid meteor shower in November of 2001. It began here with ten to fifteen meteors per minute around 11:00 PM and steadily improved all the way to astronomical twilight the next morning. At that time we were seeing well over ninety meteors per minute in just a small swath of sky. Many of them flared up at the end of their path as bright orange or green flashes. I have not heard anyone mention if spectroscopic measurements were taken of the the meteor shower. It would be interesting to find out why some were orange and others were green.
The coyotes began howling as the meteor shower intensified around midnight. Many of the meteors were bright enough to cast eerie shadows and light up the trails of the other meteors. It felt like we were under attack since the entire sky was full of meteors.