An Aerial Rendezvous with the Leonids

I
ve always wondered what it
would be like to observe the Leonid
meteor shower from a really dark sky
at high altitudes, above most of the
clouds and haze and light pollution. On
By Osamu Okamura November 17,
1999, I de-
cided to give it a try. I took a regular
commercial passenger flight at night
from Kobe, Japan, to London, England
(via Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), to record
the Leonids with my image-intensified
digital video cameras from the upper-
deck cabin windows of a Malaysian Air-
lines Boeing 747-400 jumbo jet.
Fortunately, the flight wasnt too full
I was able to select a seat in the busi-
ness-class section with two accessible
windows. I didnt have to do any struc-
tural modifications to the shelf next to
the windows where I had planned to set
up my video cameras. However, the in-
stallation of black-cloth screens over the
windows to prevent the cameras sensi-
tive detectors from being overwhelmed
by the aircrafts interior lights needed
permission from the crew. I was again
very fortunate the pilot and his crew
took great interest in the video I showed
them of the 1998 Leonids shower and
thereafter gave me permission to proceed
with my project.
My two cameras ran for a total of
about 10 hours. As predicted, the peak of
This composite shows Leonids captured by the
authors 24-mm lens between 2:04 and 2:11
Universal Time on November 18, 1999. Rates
of up to more than 100 meteors per minute
were recorded during the storms peak. Image
processing is by Teruaki Kumamori (Japan As-
tronomical Club).
the Leonid storm occurred just after 2:00
Universal Time on November 18th, with
rates exceeding 100 meteors per minute.
This was captured on my wide-angle lens
while the aircraft was cruising at an alti-
tude of about 11,000 meters (36,000
feet) somewhere over Ukraine. Our flight
path cut through the skies of many
countries between Malaysia and Eng-
land, almost exclusively over land. Occa-
sionally I could see lightning flashes
within the clouds below, and I appreciat-
ed the enormous advantage I had over
potential observers beneath the thun-
derstorm.
Although the weather was bad and
the airplane was frequently shaken
by air turbulence, almost no vibra-
tion was noticeable in the video be-
cause the cameras were tightly fixed to
the window shelf. The scene outside
during the meteor storm was spectacu-
lar, but so as not to disturb sleeping pas-
sengers I had to keep my excitement to
myself! The only other people on the air-
craft who witnessed this magnificent dis-
play were the crew.
After arriving in London, I stayed in
England for six days, touring the British
Museum and Stonehenge. Then I flew
back home to Japan. The cost of the
round-trip flight was about $1,700. What
an incredible journey!
Osamu Okamura (rxg02105@nifty.ne.jp) is
the auditor of Japans Oriental Astronomical
Association and a member of the Nippon Me-
teor Society. He is grateful to Masao Kinoshita
of Osaka, who taught him meteor video-
imaging techniques. An 87-minute VHS ver-
sion of the authors 1999 Leonid movie (in
Japanese) is available for $25.

Left: The authors onboard video setup consisted of a pair of digital video cameras equipped with image intensifiers and 24-millimeter f/1.4
and 85-mm f/1.4 camera lenses. They were mounted securely to the shelf next to the aircrafts cabin windows in the business-class section
using yellow adhesive tape. Black cloth was draped over the cameras and windows to prevent cabin lights from saturating the cameras sensi-
tive detectors. All illustrations in this article are by Osamu Okamura. Right: This fireball that blazed into view at 2:12 UT was recorded with the
authors 85-mm lens. Image processing is by Osamu Okamura.

2001 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Sky & Telescope May 2001 137