Leonids 2001

November 18, Fremont Peak, California

Unbelievable, I'll probably never see as many meteors in my life. I didn't keep count, but at the peak I saw maybe one every 2 or 3 seconds. I stayed up until 30 minutes before dawn, and they were still falling.

I put the camera on a tripod and left the shutter open for 10-15 minutes, so most of the streaks are not meteors but stars leaving trails because the earth is rotating. The meteors are the streaks going "against the grain", in a different direction from the stars. The meteors appeared to come out of, or radiate from, the constellation Leo, hence the name Leonids.

Images taken with a Pentax 35mm SF1 camera, on Kodak Royal 1000 color print film, scanned onto Kodak Picture CD, and brightness and contrast adjusted a little in Paint Shop Pro. I didn't do any research on meteor photography beforehand, so I was really glad I caught any meteors at all, and that the pictures weren't horribly over or under exposed.. I knew the longer the exposure I made, and the widest angle lens I used, the more chance I had of catching some.

click on an image to see a larger version.

A really bright meteor, and four dimmer ones. Canis Major and Sirius on the right. The red lights are from Fremont Peak's radio tower.
2:40 am, 10 minute exposure, 28mm lens, f2.8.

Leo on the upper left. The meteors in this picture are a little faint, but they give an idea how strikingly obvious the radiant was. That pink smear in the middle is a smoke trail from an earlier meteor.
3:16 am, 15 minute, 28mm, f2.8

Looking north, the Big Dipper in the center. You can see the meteor on the right changing color a little bit. There's also a fainter one on the left.
3:37 am, 15 minute, 28mm, f2.8

Looking northwest, meteors raining down on Watsonville and the Monterey Bay.
4:10 am, 15 minute, 28mm, f2.8

back to Kirk's Gallery

	A really bright meteor, and four dimmer ones. Canis Major and Sirius on the right. The red lights are from Fremont Peak's radio tower. 2:40 am, 10 minute exposure, 28mm lens, f2.8.
	Leo on the upper left. The meteors in this picture are a little faint, but they give an idea how strikingly obvious the radiant was. That pink smear in the middle is a smoke trail from an earlier meteor. 3:16 am, 15 minute, 28mm, f2.8
	Looking north, the Big Dipper in the center. You can see the meteor on the right changing color a little bit. There's also a fainter one on the left. 3:37 am, 15 minute, 28mm, f2.8
	Looking northwest, meteors raining down on Watsonville and the Monterey Bay. 4:10 am, 15 minute, 28mm, f2.8