Leonids Persistent Train - Watec-902H video recording
yKChia Dec 22 01 Version 1.3

        " Many weeks had passed and I waited patiently for fotos of the fireball to turned up in the web so that I can compare the train and the parent meteor body .. "

WHEN a fireball flashed from the Alcor/Mizar (2nd dipper star) in the tail-down Ursa Major I was chatting with a fellow observer on the little outcrop where I set up my gears. It was an intense fireball. On seeing this my 'night' companion gave a yell and rushed to his foto set up a short distance up hill ( near 1.8 m reflector). The persistent train lingered and soon I was drawn to other parts of the sky as Leonids fell gently above us. I returned to this part of the sky and noticed an unfamilar object near the tail of the Ursa Major. It was a round one -degree nebulous object of mag 4.0. I was puzzled - ruled out passing clouds as none were visible. Soon I recalled it was the train left behind by the great fireball minutes ago. And I need to get this peculiar-shaped train on tape. I reached over to the barrack of tripods, careful not to knock over any. I chose the 25mm video lens. Without a finder locating the object took a few minutes. Finally I got the 'burger' - frame up squarely in the LCD of the Hi-8 Digital camcorder. I let the tape run. A short while later another moon-length train appeared in the NW, I swung the tripod towards this short thin glow worm catching the rapidly disappearing straight wall. As a bonus streaks of meteors spurted from the sky in similar FOV. And yet another brighter and larger train appeared which I only caught a brief glimpse of it - I had given up too soon. I returned the system to catch the last faint cloud of my earlier Ursa Major train. By now the train had dispersed further to a larger diffused version. In 10 x 9 degree FOV the train measured 5 x 4 degree at UT 19:39. Stars ~ LM +8 were clearly visible. Some additional 4 minutes later the 'SMOKE-RING ' or distorted tube expanded to 1.5 x in length but remain similar in width ( 7.5 x 4 degree). Without recording of the fireball passage I would not be able to figure out which part of the p train each portion came from. So I waited for other fotos to turned up in the web hopefully they snared the same fireball.. My fellow BOAO observers could had filmed and posted it or may be the other folks at another Korean Observatory had similar shot or even DMS folks in China.... Then my break came Dec 21 I revisited Y B Jeon excellent site and found the fireball I was looking for. Yes it was there - not one but two photos which including Lucas Bolz's shot with a f29mm lens on ASA3200 (a cropped version appear above left). YB Jeon's pics recorded the fireball passage and another shot of the p train! I looked at their time stamps and compare to my video time .. yes we are talking about the same object. Curiously I checked the BOAO automated All Sky Patrol 40 sec exposure 1K CCD images and found the train remains visible in at least two frames ( time stamp 19:41 and 19:49 ) as well.

(Fig 1.0 )Nov 18 UT: 19:39 Only a few minutes after the fireball appeared three bright luminous knots of the relatively undisturbed portions of the trains remained.

(Fig 2.0) UT 19:43 Just four minutes later the upper atmos strong wind had further extended the loop further. Compare both images using 'X' and 'Y' marker.

(Fig 3.0) Below: Using SkyMap Pro I spray-painted the positions of the Fireball * (* traced from Lukas Bolz foto) and the train remains based on Fig 2.0