Leonids 2000 Meteor Gallery
back to spaceweather.com

Summary: A bright moon, city lights and scattered clouds weren't enough to keep the 2000 Leonid meteor shower at bay. Sky watchers who ventured outdoors after midnight on Nov. 17th and 18th enjoyed sporadic flurries of bright shooting stars numbering more than 200 per hour over parts of Europe, Africa, and the Americas. [more information]


Unless otherwise stated, all images are copyrighted by the photographers.
Many of the videos in this collection appear in RealPlayer format.

  Photographer, Location Images Comments

George Varros, Mount Airy, MD #1, #1 (slow motion), #2, #3, #4 These videos were captured by George Varros from Mount Airy, Maryland. He used a Gen II image intensifier and a PC-23-C digital video camera. The field of view is approximately 55 degrees. Jupiter is the brightest object near the right hand side of these images, followed by Saturn and Aldebaran. Orion appears to the left.

David Varros, Frederick, MD #1, #1 (slow motion), #2 George Varros's twin brother David, located 15 miles away in Frederick, MD, captured these images of the same fireball that George recorded over Mount Airy. Video #1 here corresponds to video #1 under George's entry, above. The brothers combined their images to produce a unique overlay depicting the trajectory of the fireball as seen from Mount Airy (arrow "1") and from Frederick (arrow "2"). The two arrows are offset as a result of parallax. The ghostly web appearing between Jupiter and Saturn is a basketball net in D. Varros's driveway.

Doug Murray, Palm Beach Gardens, FL #1, #2, #3, #4, #5 Doug Murray: "Due to the moon shine and the high humidity in South Florida, I restricted my observing to the darkest part of the sky, which was from the SE to NW. Within this limited area I saw about 30 meteors on the 17th (clear skies, high humidity) from 3:00 to 4:30 EDT. I was surprised to see some very colorful, long trails under these conditions. The highlight of the night on the 18th was a very bright bolide that headed to the south. Of course my camera and I were looking west !"

Mike Boschat, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada #1 Mike Boschat captured this photo of a colorful Leonid meteor on Nov 18, 2000, at 0850 UT. Photo settings: Camera: Soviet made Zenit B Lens: 50mm f/1.8 Film: Kodak Gold 400 ASA Exposure: about 10 seconds.

Paulo Mansur Raymundo, Bahia, Brazil #1 Paulo Raymundo: "We saw 204 Leonids brighter than magnitude +3 between 5:00 and 7:10 UT on the morning of November 18 despite strong moonlight and light pollution. Very often they came in pairs, either separated by a few degrees or following in the path of another meteor after a couple of seconds. Two even outshined Jupiter! This Photo was captured at 6:32 UT. Exposure lasted for 160 seconds with 28mm Vivitar lens at f/2.8 and Fuji Super G Plus 800."

Bob Yen, Mt. Wilson, CA #1, #2, #3, more Bob Yen's all-night "meteor patrol" coverage of the 2000 Leonids from Mount Wilson produced a wonderful selection of wide-angle shots. You can see more (including photo settings) at his Leonids 2000 web site.

Tony Cook, Alexandria, Virginia #1, #2 Tony Cook: "It appears that I captured the same fireball that George Varros videoed at 08:37UT on Nov. 18th. I was using a Sony Digital 8 DCR-TR7000 camcorder, working in 1/4sec exposure mode at maximum wide angle. I set the camera up on my balcony in Alexandria, Virginia. "

back to spaceweather.com