LEONIDS GALLERY

The spectacular Leonid display in 1998 was, up until that time, the best show that I had ever seen. Observing from a relatively dark site bordering the Scottish Trossachs during the late evening/early morning of the 17th/18th November, I was truly amazed at the number of unusually bright and slow moving "earthgrazer" meteors that graced the skies. Some were so bright that they could be seen backlighting the thickening cloud cover. Ironically, by the time I got home conditions were excellent for viewing, clear and very cold, the meteors were much faster and not as bright. My resistance to the cold ran out just before 1am and I retired to bed; it is history that the best of the display was to occur several hours later!

In 2001 I travelled to La Palma, Canary Islands, to view the Leonids under more favourable conditions than actually transpired at home in Scotland.

In 2002, due to local committments, I stayed in Scotland to observe the last major Leonid display predicted to occur until the end of this century.