November 21, 2001

On November 18, for an almost miraculous night, the normal November clouds over Washington parted during one of this century's most spectacular astronomical events. A caravan of 15 of us headed to the higher, dryer skies of central Washington to watch the annual Leonid meteor shower. It was well worth the subzero temperatures and the 125 mile drive! It was simply spectacular. Though cold and windy, the heavens opened up better than I had dared imagine.

Between ooh's and aah's of the meteor storm, I tended to two cameras. Between numb fingers and a stiff wind I managed to ruin two rolls, however I did get two successful rolls!

I experimented with two types of film, both recommended by various astrophotographers:

The results were quite different. The fuji pictures, at the same length of exposure had severe fogging, and poorer color saturation, though it was 800 vs 200 ASA film. The Kodak film resulted in darker black and much redder reds. I did not expect to find that I had captured Bernard's Loop and the Rosette Nebula! More experimentation to follow to be sure!

No meteors, but great photo of area around Orion.

Canon FT, 50mm f1.4, Kodak Elitechrome approx 10 minutes
An annotated version is available here.

No meteors. Area around Cassiopeia. IC 1805, 1848 "The Double Nebula"
Canon FT, 50mm f1.4, Kodak Elitechrome approx 10 minutes

An annotated version is available here.

A single streak to the upper right of Orion.

Canon FT, 50mm f1.4, Kodak Elitechrome approx 10 minutes
4 faint streaks.

Canon FT, 50mm f1.4, Kodak Elitechrome approx 10 minutes
One fireball below the Andromedae Galaxy (M31).

Canon FT, 50mm f1.4, Kodak Elitechrome approx 10 minutes
Two faint streaks to the north of Cassiopioa. NGC 7822 is upper center, NGC 281 (Pacman Nebula) is small red puff upper left.

Canon FT, 50mm f1.4, Kodak Elitechrome approx 10 minutes
4 streaks around Andromedae (M31).

Canon FT, 50mm f1.4, Kodak Elitechrome approx 10 minutes
4 faint streaks, one with a rainbow. One is on the right border.

Canon FT, 50mm f1.4, Kodak Elitechrome approx 10 minutes
Today's raw, unprocessed images.

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