> From quai@cbatmpc.harvard.edu Fri Nov 26 23:27:55
1999
                                                
Circular No. 7320
Central Bureau for Astronomical TelegramsINTERNATIONAL
ASTRONOMICAL UNION
Mailstop 18, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory,
Cambridge, MA02138, U.S.A.
IAUSUBS@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or FAX 617-495-7231
(subscriptions)
BMARSDEN@CFA.HARVARD.EDU or DGREEN@CFA.HARVARD.EDU
(science)
URL http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html  ISSN
0081-0304
Phone 617-495-7244/7440/7444 (for emergency use only)

LUNAR LEONID METEORS
     On Nov. 19 D. W. Dunham, Applied Physics
Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, reported the
visual observation by B. Cudnik (Houston, TX,0.36-m
telescope) on Nov. 18 of a brief flash near the center
of the moon´sdark limb, at least as bright as psi1 Aqr
nearby.  This event, 1´.7 from themoon´s
edge, was apparently confirmed by Dunham (Mount Airy,
MD, 0.13-mtelescope) on two half-frames of a videotape
that showed fading by about 5 mag during the
intervening 1/60 second.  On Nov. 23 and 24 Dunham
reported hisconfirmation of two lunar flashes
videorecorded by P. V. Sada (Monterrey, Mexico,0.13-m
telescope) half an hour after Cudnik´s observation, as
well as of twolunar flashes videorecorded by D. Palmer
(Greenbelt, MD) up to an hour or soearlier;
there was also a probable untimed additional visual
confirmation of the Cudnik
event by S. Hendrix (Cameron, MO, 0.11-m telescope).
Dunham hassummarized his own measurements of the five
Nov. 18 events as follows:
Disc.            UT            m1  m2  lambda beta  
Lunar location
         h  m   s        s             deg    deg
Palmer   3 49 40.5  +/- 0.4    3   7   48 W    1 N 
175 km SW ofKepler
Palmer   4 08 04.1  +/- 0.6    5   8   70 W   15 S 
175 km S ofGrimaldi
Cudnik   4 46 15.2  +/- 0.1    3   8   71 W   14 N  
50 km ENE ofCardanus
Sada     5 14 12.93 +/- 0.05   7   8   58 W   15 N 
200 km WNW ofMarius
Sada     5 15 20.23 +/- 0.05   4   7   59 W   21 N  
75 km S ofSchiaparelli
The magnitude m1 is that on the first frame showing
the event, m2 thaton the
following half-frame; the first event listed also
seems to be presenton a
third half-frame at mag 9.  The selenographic
coordinates (longitudelambda
and latitude beta) and lunar location for the first
two events areuncertain
by 5 deg or more, but the others should be accurate to
within about 2deg
(50 km).  Following Dunham´s suggestion that the
flashes resulted fromLeonid
impacts on the moon, D. J. Asher, Armagh Observatory,
computed that the
center of the 1899 dust trail that evidently produced
the 1999 Nov. 18Leonid
activity (cf. IAUC 7311) by nominally passing 0.0007
AU from thegeocenter
would have passed 0.0002 AU from the selenocenter
around 4h49m UT.
                      (C) Copyright 1999 CBAT
1999 November 26               (7320)            
Brian G. Marsden
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