1998 Leonid Meteor Shower

4-frame panorama taken by Jean with a Sony FD-71 digital camera.

1998 Leonid Meteor Shower

All meteor shots below were ~15 minutes on Kodak PPF 400 (unhypered) using 50mm lenses set at f/2.8.

On the evening of November 16, clouds created a nice sunset, but caused me quite a bit of anxiety as they closed in. Finally, about 9 PM, they (mostly) cleared out in time for a nice show of Leonids. The meteors were largely very bright ones, but fewer in number than I had hoped for.

Clouds rolled back over after 3 AM, obscuring what seemed to be increasing activity. The sky was often lit up with flashes from meteors, even though the sky was mostly covered with clouds. Along a thin strip on the southern horizon, the only section of the sky still visible, I could see numerous meteors flashing by.

November 17 turned out to be a much clearer but colder night. However, the meteor shower activity had clearly dropped compared to the previous night. All of the meteors captured below were from Monday night.

	A meteor cuts through the constellation Puppis. Messier objects M46 and M47 are the pair of fuzzy objects to the upper right of the meteor.
	Another meteor cuts through the area where the borders of the constellations Hydra, Monoceros, and Puppis meet. M46 and M47 are visible again at the lower right, while M48 is visible near the meteor.

Murphy's law strikes! A nice bright meteor cuts through the field of view of both cameras (about 1-1/2 35mm frames are shown) but still exits before reaching peak intensity. The field of view includes the constellations Orion and Monoceros (where the Rosette nebula is visible). Sirius is visible in the lower left corner.