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1. Locations 2. Impressions 3. Images |
Jaap van 't Leven
Based on statistical information on the weather situation in Europe and our experiences during previous trips to Spain, we decided on the south of Portugal as our prime observing site. By choosing the more remote Portugal we highly improved our changes of a clear sky and therewith reduced the risk of last minute drives to cloudless locations. During the trip and our stay in Portugal we obtained up-to-date information on the weather by visiting internet-cafes and downloading satellite-pictures using a Nokia Communicator. This enabled us to make our own prognoses for our observing site. Planning and preparing our trip as we did, really payed off. We left Holland on the morning of the 11th and after a 3-day, 2500 km trip by car, we found accomodation in Almodôvar, a town situated 50 km north of the southern coast (latitude: 37º30'40"N, longitude: 08º04'03"W, altitude:290m).
Peter set up his radio in one of the rooms of our appartement while
the antenna was set up at the roof-terrace. During the night 17/18 he also observed
visually from this roof-terrace.
Alex, Olga and Jaap carried out visual and photographic observations from a nearby
hilltop, a 1 minute drive.
The nights off 14/15 (partly clouded), 15/16 and 16/17 were used for testing the equipment and adaptation to the new environment. During the day we relaxed, made little trips and visited the local restaurant frequently.
The night 17/18 started with a first quarter moon low in de west. As
the moon set, the sky became darker with a limiting magnitude of 6.6. After the radiant
rose no high activity was seen, but from 01 UT on that changed quickly. More and more
Leonids started to appear. From 02 UT on Alex started counting Leonids in 5 minute
intervals, while Olga continued estimating brightnesses. After 02.30 UT rates started
to fall, but activity remained well above average. The long awaited Leonid-show was
over. Everyone of us, broke his/her personal records for numbers of meteors observed
in one single night.
Remarkable was the absence of bright Leonids, just an occasional magnitude 0 or +1 was
seen (the brightest Leonid was -4 early in the evening). Also noticable where the groups
of Leonids; every now and then as much as 8 meteors appeared at the same time.
From our observations we determined that maximum activity occured somewhere between 02 UT
and 02.30 UT.
The following morning we celebrated this brilliant Leonid-display with a champagne breakfast.
Jaap van 't Leven
