2001 Leonid Meteor Shower from La Palma, Canary Islands

2001 Leonids

The weather prospects in Scotland for observing the Leonids in 2001 were very unfavourable (well - to be honest...dreadful!). Needing to get away from Scotland for a warm break I travelled to the volcanic island of La Palma, one of the Canary Islands located in the Atlantic Ocean off the north west coast of Africa. Climate all year round is very pleasant; in November daytime temperatures are around 20-23慢 and around 15慢 at night. Several European countries have important optical telescopes operating on the island and the Canary Island Government's "Law of the Sky" regulates the installation of nocturnal lighting to minimise light pollution. As a consequence the night skies are very dark! If only more governments were so aware of the need to preserve our night skies!

I had a delightful week on the island enjoying the food, scenery and the fresh air. Here are some views of La Palma: volcan San Antonio, the Valle de Aridane, Punto Gorda and the Santa Cruz barranco in spate (the car was eventually washed into the Atlantic Ocean).

Although predicted timings for the storms suggested that La Palma would not be privileged to see them, there was nevertheless a slight chance that the predictions could be wrong. They weren't! Asher and McNaught's predictions for the timings and intensities of the two storm periods were very accurate.

I awoke at around 05:00h on the 17th to do some preliminary Leonid counts- in half an hour I saw none! Unfortunately, the weather deteriorated so that the night of the 17th/18th was completely clouded out (ironically, the only night of our seven night stay that was cloudy!!). The next night, the 19th, a respectable Leonid activity was exhibited from 01:00h (about 7 hours after the storm's peak). Looking south I counted 53 Leonids between 01:00h and 04:00h (yielding a pretty respectable ZHR of 100+). Most were around mag 2, although one, a mag. -3 bolide, lit up the countryside and left a green train which persisted for a few seconds. Several others rivalled Sirius in brightness. During that three hour spell I also counted 12 probable Taurids and several sporadics (it was a busy time!).

I also took the opportunity whilst on the island to do some long exposures of Milky Way subjects.

Here are some of my images taken on La Palma between the 19th and 23rd of November 2001.

	An image centred on the Milky Way from Monoceros to Carina. Two meteors were imaged here, one through Puppis and another through Carina. They weren't really bright enough to register strongly on the emulsion. Canopus is the bright star lower right and Sirius is upper right. Here is a close up of the brightest meteor.
	A meteor streaks out of the Leonid radiant just above the tree. A bit of image processing was required to highlight the meteor.
	A "fish eye" view of the sky looking SE highlighting the Milky Way from Auriga to Puppis. Jupiter is the bright "star" left of centre and Orion takes centre stage. Visually the Milky Way from Monoceros through Puppis was beautiful.
	A wide angle view of Orion region. The dark skies enabled recording the extent of Barnard's loop and the bubble around Lambda Orionis. The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros is middle left. Here is a close-up.
	Counts and estimated brightness of Leonids observed between 01:00 and 04:00 UT on the 19/11/2001.
	Estimated Zenithal Hourly Rates (ZHR) derived from the above counts.