The Leonids - 1999

The media had been plugging the 1999 apparition of the Leonids meteor shower so I had to take a look. I had guessed they were going to be best just before sunrise and had synched my body clock by getting up earlier each morning. This turned out to be a bad plan as a better idea was to stay up late.

Anyway, I managed to get up at 2am and looked out to an overcast sky. Not good, but the weather forecast had suggested the centre of the country might be better so, having filled a hot-water-bottle, I jumped into the car and drove off to the east. As I drove, I saw starlight to the north so on reaching Torrance, I turned towards Lennoxtown then continued through Strathblane to the Queen's View on the Stockiemuir Road. At 2:40, the car park was busy. Every second space had a car, usually with one or two folk propped against it gazing skyward. Some had engines running to keep warm and a minibus full of people was generating a lot of hubbub mixed with early Beatles tracks drifting through the night.

A third of the sky was covered with cloud but the clear two-thirds was sparkling and clear. A meteor or two would be seen in quick succession followed by a gap of 20 to 40 seconds. I would say there was, on average, 4 per minute. That's a high rate. Excellent. Normally, you only get one every five or ten minutes. The remaining cloud evaporated as I watch and I realised I needed to get as much of the sky in my eye as possible and the only way to do that is to lie down.

I came up with the idea of using the back car seats. In a Peugeot, the rear seat bases are easily removable. The 60% seat took my main weight and the 40% seat took my head as I lay down in the car park while cars came and went around me. I had the hot-water-bottle tucked down my fleece and was *very* comfortable for a good half hour despite the temperatures. Sometimes to enjoy nature's riches, you have to look a bit of a plonker!

The light show continued but by 3:30am the rate had tailed off markedly to one every one or two minutes and I decided it was time to wander home. It was very worthwhile.