The Explorers "Leonids 2001" Expedition to Palau    by Martin Mobberley
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A mere 5 months after the African eclipse of June 21st I found myself,
once more, bound for a distant destination, in search of an astronomical
memory which might stay with me for a lifetime. According to Asher &
McNaught and Lyytinen/Van Flandern, the Earth would plough through a number
of substantial dust trails on 2001 November 18th, laid down by 55P 
Tempel-Tuttle in 1766, 1699 and 1866. The Asher/McNaught calculations
predicted a ZHR peak of 2,500 from the 1766 debris at 10h UT and a ZHR
peak of maybe 15,000 at around 18h UT, from the 1699 & 1866 trails.
Despite having seen a meteor storm from Sinai in November '99, I was still
keen to see another, particularly if there was a chance of the storm being 
greater, or the meteors brighter. 
I must confess that I have never been keen on any kind of long distance
travel, but missing a major astronomical spectacle and regretting it for
the rest of my life is something I could not easily live with; also, with
meteor storms being exceptionally rare events (and almost guaranteed to be
clouded out from the UK) this was one trip I HAD to go on, just as I had to
go to Tenerife for Hyakutake in March '96 and Darjeeling & Sinai for the
Leonids in '98 and '99.
Targetting the predicted 18h UT peak, John Mason & Explorers had decided on
the Micronesian paradise island of Palau for the 2001 expedition. At 134 
degrees East of Greenwich, local time would be some 9 hours ahead of the UK, 
thus the 18h UT peak would occur at 3am local time if the predictions came true.
The Leonid radiant would be high in the sky, but dawn still 2 hours away,
allowing a safety margin, if predictions slipped. 

Another consideration, of course, is the weather; to see an astronomical
spectacle one has to have clear skies. Unfortunately, there are no desert
regions in the midwest & northwest Pacific Oceans(!), but there are plenty of
tropical storms; so for this trip, clear skies were not guaranteed.....

			THE LONG HAUL TO PALAU

I started my journey, as with all but one of my 8 Explorers holidays, at
London Heathrow. This time it was Terminal 3 and a 13 hour journey on
Singapore Airlines Flight 319. As this was one day after the New York
Airbus crash I was glad I was on a 747. To my mind, four engines have always
seemed a bit more sensible than two! This flight would be the first of four 
to get us to Palau!  Unlike the Zimbabwe trip of 5 months earlier, I was pleased
to see some friendly astronomical faces emerge at the terminal and even
happier that, with such a small group (43 in total) we would all be in the
same hotels. Roughly half of the travellers chose to extend their holiday at
the start, finish, or both, with extra nights in Singapore; so, there were
twenty Leonid chasers on this flight. These included three members of Crayford
A.S., i.e. Rita Whiting, Dick Chambers and Malcolm Gough, John Mason and partner
Jane, Jonathan Shanklin, Hazel McGee, Mike Frost, Mike and Wendy Maunder and
Peter Challen; plus, about a dozen other travellers whose faces were familiar
from other Explorers trips.
We were escorted by Kate Parks, whose father Richard had been my tour guide on 
a number of Explorers eclipse holidays.
We also appeared to have Stephen Hawking on our trip !!...I was surprised that he
was fully mobile and not speaking through a speech synthesiser, but he was
definitely on the trip, as any of the above will confirm!!
Tragically, a Marconi work colleague and his wife had to cancel their holiday at
the very last minute when an antenna was dropped onto his foot only days before
the trip! I'd spent years trying to coax him onto an Explorers holiday, but
fate had intervened with 3 days to go.... In another bizarre twist, Rita
Whiting and myself had been classed as husband & wife by the airlines and so
had adjacent seats on 6 of the 7 flights, despite genuine couples being split
up on nearly every trip! Does anyone actually understand how airline seats are
allocated ? No explanation I've heard has ever survived an Explorers holiday!
Sitting next to Rita had it's advantages: there was no wax left in my ears by
the end of the tour and her wet-wipes were extremely useful in removing the
remains of a choc-ice from my trouser crotch, at the end of the flight to
Singapore.

After 13 hours, the transfer to the next flight, Singapore to Manila, was 
easy and at the departure gate to Manila we met the rest of our contingent. 
It was good to see Nigel and Alex Evans at this juncture. Nigel, of course,
had, yet again, used Alex' clothing allowance to accomodate his equatorial
mounting and camera array!

If Singapore airport had been slick and impressive, Manila was a chaotic
nightmare. All transfers through this airport were handled by a single desk,
manned by, at most, 3 personnel! We had been told that we might like to
try checking our luggage through to Guam, from Heathrow. I was told this was
not possible, but later checker-inners were allowed to do this. However,
their success signified nothing, as the only difference was that their
baggage tag bar code label simply had GUM on the end of it, but still appeared
on the Manila baggage carousel; it was then promptly collected by baggage 
handlers, and hurled onto the Manila runway! The owners of the luggage
were then summoned to verify this was their luggage whereas those
who hadn't checked thru to Guam had already checked their luggage in !
Presumably this was a consequence of September 11th, as, not surprisingly,
the security precautions for the flight to Guam (a major US Air base) were
very tight; all hand baggage was hand-searched, item by item. However, my
large X-Ray proof bag, within which my 1600 ASA Leonid film was stored, at
no time attracted any attention in my main luggage !

On finally leaving Manila (some 21 hours into our journey), Rita, Dick and 
myself tried to recognise the constellations thru the window of the 738.
It was roughly 2am local time. We could make out one bright star looking
in the direction we thought was south and we were at a latitude of 13 N.
The money was on it being Canopus, Sirius or maybe Achernar?
By ramming my face into the porthole I spotted another star higher up and
quite a few stars in between the two (see figure). Could you identify the
field? Answers at the end of the article!

A short time later our plane landed at Guam. We were now just over 24 hours
into our trip, but as we were now 10 hours east of Greenwich, it was dawn.
We had a short journey break of 14 hours here. As we staggered out of
the airport we were hit by a wall of hot, humid air. If Palau was like this,
my night-time observing jumper would not be required in 4 nights time!!
As most of us had not slept for over 36 hours, we quickly scuttled off to
our hotel day-rooms and, despite the imminent sunrise, crept into bed for
some desperately needed sleep. Unfortunately, this was not a luxury option
for John Mason, as at this stage in the journey he had to decide whether we
should stay in Guam, or proceed to Palau. If the weather was going to be
atrocious in Palau, but better in Guam, in 4 days time, some serious decisions
had to be made! John would have to forgo any sleep; he had an appointment
with the Met office! Some 9 hours later, we all assembled to hear John's news.
Essentially, 3 tropical storms were active in the region and the weather
prospects did not look promising. However, if anything, Guam looked like it
would be worse off than Palau: so as Palau was a far nicer island, our plans
were unchanged and it was back to the airport for our fourth flight!
In the Guam departures lounge, Nigel, Alex, Mike Frost, Jon Shanklin and
myself pigged out on french fries and burgers (our eating patterns were
somewhat erratic by now!) before shuffling off to another departure gate.
Although most of us had not long got out of bed, we arrived at our Palau
hotel at about 10.30 pm Palau time (Palau is 1 hour west of Guam, so 9 hours
east of Greenwich). 1 day and 21 hours after leaving Heathrow we had arrived
at our destination: the Palasia Hotel in Koror, the capital of Palau. It was
just as hot and humid here, but we arrived in the middle of a refreshing
tropical deluge......would this be our fate in 3 nights time?
For the second time that day, I was getting back into bed!

		        	AT LEISURE IN PALAU

My room (No. 615) in the Palasia Hotel was one of the nicest hotel rooms I
can remember staying in, with the biggest bed I'd ever seen and a spectacular 
south-eastern vista over the Palau island chain. As with all foriegn hotel
rooms there was the inevitable Krypton Factor test as to how one switches
the lights in the room on, but this was the only moment of trauma!
As in Zimbabwe, room keys were issued immediately on arrival; no silly
form filling was involved.
Below my large balcony was the main street in Koror, which was always a 
scene of much activity. Palauans drive on the right hand side of the road, as
in the USA. This is because Palau is under a "Compact of Free Association" 
with the USA and is, effectively, under US protection (the USA won it from
the Japanese in WW II). But 90% of the cars have the steering wheels on the
right hand side! This is because the main source of cars & second-hand cars is
Japan, and the Japanese drive on the same side as the UK, ie on the left hand
side of the road. Thus 90% of the cars in Palau have the steering wheel on the
same side as the side of the road they drive on...which makes overtaking an
interesting maneuver! At night, from my balcony, I had the whole of the
southern sky to savour with binoculars, from the Magellanic clouds thru the
southern Milky Way and on to the Southern Cross, it was all visible. Plus, 
unlike in South Africa, the northern sky was all there too, although Polaris
was, admittedly, only 7 degrees above the northern horizon!
Our Hotel was positioned, very appropriately, only a hundred metres from 
"Mason's Do-It Store" and many people decided to be photographed next to the
sign! During this time, John was phoned for a live broadcast by the BBC who
introduced him as being based in Fiji, and having already observed 300
*meteorites* per second !! 
The first day at leisure was a fascinating 6 stop boat trip to the best
snorkelling spots in the islands. I ended up the source of considerable
entertainment as I was sitting on the part of the boat where all the spray
collected....so I was soaked to the skin even before I started snorkelling.
Fortunately, with the temperature around 30 C, this was quite welcome!
The little islands reminded me of the biospheres in the cult Sci-fi film
Silent Running. Some were only hundreds of metres across and all looked
like green mushrooms as they emerged from the sea. The sea erodes the base
such that the diameter of the islands suddenly increases a metre or less
above the sea level, giving the mushroom appearance. All the islands were
teeming with foliage and the turquoise seas beneath were teaming with fish..
...remarkable. After a barbeque lunch on a truly idyllic paradise beach, we
set off for more snorkelling sites, culminating in the surreal "Jellyfish
lake", a deep green pool, a quarter of a mile wide in which the snorkeller
will find him/herself totally surrounded by Jellyfish (of the non-stinging
variety). Our large, black american guide, "Swingley", kindly informed us
(once we had swum well away from the dive platform) that "Yep, I've seen loads of
crocodiles in this lake....they're usually scared of humans though!".
As we ploughed back thru the waves to Koror, Alex spotted the crescent Moon;
it was November 16th at 9h UT (1800 local) so the Moon was only 26 hours old.
Without knowing it, Alex had officially kicked off Ramadan!
So ended the first day in Palau, and after a bizarre attempt at acquiring
food in the hotel restaurant, I did some casual observing and had an early
night...I wanted to save my energies for the Saturday and Sunday night's
observing sessions. Some went with John to the jetty to do some observing
(one very bright Taurid & Leonid appeared to order at John's command!) but
I succumbed to the need for some sleep.


		           THE BOAT TRIP TO NOWHERE

The night of Saturday the 17th was to be a full dress rehearsal for the big
night of Leonid observing, so Saturday was a lazy day. My main efforts were
in altering the notice board to inform holiday-makers that John was available
to give lessons in crocodile wrestling, and to attend John's talk. That evening
we sampled the local Italian restaurant and the 11" and 16" diameter Pizza's....
apertures that were quite familiar to telescope users.
I wasted no time in informing Nigel that his slime-green vegetable soup looked
like someone had syringed out a well-used Peruvian nose flute.
John Mason's masterplan was to take us all, by boat, to a dark site at the
north of the island, where cloud and light pollution might be significantly
improved. About 2/3rds of the travellers booked for this trip, so 3 boats were
procured. Unfortunately, unlike Explorers eclipse expeditions, this strategy had
not been tested, but we were assured by Swingley that his trusted boatmen could
get us to the observing site in 40 mins by boat. The skies were mainly cloudy as
we set off from the jetty at 10.45 pm, and the cloud, wind and rain intensified
as we ploughed thru the increasingly choppy seas. The plan was for our two boats,
led by John Mason and Kate Parks, to follow the first boat, captained by Swingley.
After 90 minutes of travel, in worsening seas, we had completely lost sight of
the main boat and only just managed to keep in touch with Kate's boat. This was
fairly remarkable in itself, as it was pitch black, there were no lights on the
boat, no radios and none of the boat drivers seemed to speak any sense !! There
were also 5 life jackets to share between 20 people on our two boats! As we
almost collided with boat no. 2, a conversation ensued thus:-
John (boat 1) to boat no. 2 driver in the blackness: "Have you seen Swingley?"
Boat no. 2 driver: "Yes"
John: "Great, you saw his boat go past?" 
Boat no. 2 driver: "No"
John: "I thought you had seen him?"
Boat no. 2 driver: "Yes"
John: "(Sigh) I thought it took 40 minutes to get to where we are going"
Boat no. 2 driver: "Yes"
John: "But we've been travelling for an hour and a half"
Boat no. 2 driver: "Yes"
John: "How much longer will it take?"
Boat no. 2 driver: "We are a third of the way !!!!"
John (under his breath) "For Christ's sake".
From this point on, things got worse, the weather became vile, the boat started 
lurching violently and we almost ran aground.
To be fair to our boatman, he had only forgotten to bring along two items on the 
trip:
1. All the basic seafaring equipment
2. His cerebrum

At 1.30 am we docked at a local jetty and all disembarked and took shelter in a
building on the quayside. One felt sorry for the fisherman who had been using the
building to have a kip.....Bad Luck Mate.... Explorers Tours are in town !
As well as our bodies, we all had all our observing equipment with us, so we really 
did'nt want the boats to sink!
John went inland to see if we could be rescued, but came back with the news that
there was no road connection to Koror from our location. On John's recommendation
and with improving weather, we all piled back on the two boats, somewhat concerned 
that we still had no knowledge of where the first boat had gone.
Fortunately Nigel was on our boat and he had a Garmin GPS receiver plus a map of 
the islands with Lat & Long co-ordinates. On the other boat another Explorers
traveller had a GPS receiver, but, tragically, it only worked if he was in Essex !!
The boats raced thru the blackness back to Koror (somewhat disturbing as they
had no lights and there were a few drifting logs in the water!) and somehow we
made it back safely to our dock. It transpired that the 3rd boat had returned much
earlier and our friends were all safe. It was now 2.30 am and skies were clearing,
so some stayed on the jetty to observe, while others returned to the hotel.
Nigel Evans and myself decided that now was the time to suss out the hotel roof
as a possible observing sight, so at 3am we used the Fire Exits to get to the
rooftops and decided that this was a suitable option for the big night. At least
Nigel could see Polaris from here. After spotting a few Taurid's and Leonids we
both turned in at 3.30 am, it was now pouring down again and we were totally knackered
from the night's endeavours!

		THE BIG NIGHT LOOMS AND DOLPHINS COME OUT TO PLAY

On emerging from our beds on Sunday 18th we were greeted with John's plan B for
the big Leonid night on the notice board...all nighttime boat trip plans were shelved;
we were going to the magnificent Pacific Resort beachside hotel (beach sand imported
from abroad!) for our evening meal and safe observing from a really dark site.
There would also be a $20 refund for what John termed "The Boat Trip to Nowhere".
But before the big night, half the travellers had opted for an encounter with
Palau's Dolphin's, so it was off on another boat trip! I must admit that if the
opportunity had'nt presented itself, I would'nt have given playing with Dolphin's
a moment's thought, but having done it, it was one of the most memorable things
I'd ever done. The Palau Dolphin Project had 11 Dolphins (9 female and 2 male) who
lived in a large fenced off area of a local bay. The project was very new and 
visitors were only just being admitted. We were led, 5 at a time, onto a narrow
platform suspended below the water line, so we were waist deep in water. The
others in the group sat on the edge of the deep water with their feet dangling in
to attract these big fish! While we fed the Dolphins and played with them, the
project scientist explained the individual Dolphin's personality traits and 
answered a bombardment of questions about Dolphin's. It was a fascinating
encounter and I can say that Delphinus will never seem quite the same constellation
again! These mammals are obviously highly intelligent and seemed to be intent on
just having fun. I could'nt help wondering just what they really thought of us!

On returning from Dolphin Bay, it was time to think seriously about the night
ahead. The Leonids were why we had come here and it was time to check and
double-check all the equipment before travelling a couple of miles down the
road to the Pacific Resort Hotel. All 43 travellers made the trip to the site
and indulged in a magnificent meal that evening. However, disturbingly, skies
were 100% cloudy and the prospects of seeing any Leonids looked very bleak indeed.
With a few stars becoming visible by 11.30pm, the Maunder's, the Evan's and myself
decided that the best place for photography was from our own hotel roof (if the
cloud really did start to clear). There were a number of reasons for this:
Firstly, Nigel needed to see Polaris which was impossible from our beach jetty;
this was essential for polar alignment.
Secondly, sand, sea, hordes of people, torches and camera equipment don't mix.
Thirdly, if you mislay any equipment on the hotel roof, you can find it the next
day quite easily, but you can't if you were on a jetty above the sea at a 
different hotel. So five of us, plus Kate, went back to the Palasia and headed for
the hotel roof; a different part of the roof to the area we had surveyed the 
previous night, but one with a much safer viewing area. By 00:40 local time my
equipment was fully set up and Nigel and Mike were a few metres away: all we
needed now was for the clouds to part.

                     THE CLOUDS PART AND THE LEONIDS STORM

For me, the first glimmer of hope occurred around 1:28 am local time (16:28 UT)
when through a large clearing I saw 3 consecutive Leonids within the space of
a few seconds. Cloud cover was about 60 or 70% at this time, but getting better
all the time. I must admit to having huge problems orienting myself with the sky.
It was confusing enough with being at 7 degrees North, but, in addition, there was
initially a lot of cloud too. Add to that the presence of Jupiter and Saturn in
Gemini and Taurus and the sky was a confusing place, with only Orion providing
some sanity! I quickly abandoned any ideas of doing long exposures with my Barn
Door mounting, as even when the sky was 90% clear there were fast-moving bright
clouds about.My strategy throughout the night was to move my 3 camera tripods
around the roof, photographing the clearest areas and terminating exposures at the
right time, before cloud appeared! In addition, Polaris was, at best, elusive!

With a plethora of experienced Meteor observers at the beach site, all taking
account of the percentage of cloud cover, John Mason and Dick Chambers were able
to issue a preliminary assessment of what we had seen. A copy of this was issued to
me by John on the final flight back to Heathrow. I should stress that these 
findings are very preliminary, but this is what John and Dick deduced:
Raw Leonid rates (uncorrected for limiting magnitude, % cloud cover or radiant
altitude) increased from about 2 per minute at 16:40 UT to 5 per minute at 17:00 UT.
Correcting for cloud cover, Leonid rates rose from 5/minute at 17:00 UT to 
10/minute at 17:15 UT, 20/minute by 17:30 UT and peaked at 25/minute at 17:38-17:39
UT. Leonid rates then fell briefly to around 15/minute, before climbing to
another peak of about 25/minute just before 18:00 UT (3am local time).
Rates fell again slightly after 18:00 UT before climbing again to a third, and
highest peak, at 18:15 - 18:16 UT, with 27 Leonids per minute.
After 18:16 UT, rates fell slightly, dropping to 12-13 Leonids/minute by 18:30 UT
and 10 per minute by 18:45 UT (again these rates are only corrected for % cloud
cover). From 18:30-19:45 UT there was a prolonged plateau in Leonid activity
with rates of 10-12 Leonids per minute. Leonids continued to be seen well into
the dawn sky and even up to 6 minutes before sunrise!!
John calculated that the observed Leonid maxima at 17:38-17:39 UT, 17:58-18:00 UT
and 18:15-18:16 UT corresponded *very approximately* to EZHR's of 2,600, 3,000 and
3,200 Leonids per hour.....certainly meteor storm activity!

So what did I make of it, as a non meteor observer?  Well, in 1999 in Sinai, in
the crystal clear, jet black, cloud free sky, we witnessed a prominent and
dramatic single peak at the precise McNaught/Asher time. This peak consisted of
mainly faint meteors, but even I was seeing 35 Leonids per minute. With the
brighter skies, varying transparency and drifting cloud, I did'nt experience the
same, dramatic , "flying thru space" radiant as in Sinai. However, there were
loads of bright Leonids about and quite a few fireballs; something not seen two
years earlier. In addition, photographically, I was recording slightly more meteors
in shorter exposures this time around. Film does'nt record the faint meteors,
but it does record meteors brighter than first mag, and there were plenty of
them around. There were times when every 10 seconds I was seeing something as
bright as Saturn flying through the sky. So it was spectacular, and we were
incredibly lucky. Most of the nights in Palau were pretty cloudy, but the
Gods smiled on us that night and produced a mainly clear sky from 2am till
dawn, something that had seemed impossible earlier in the night.
It was well worth the trip and in years to come I will still savour the memory of
my second meteor storm. It must also have been the only night of observing
where, at 5am, the air was so hot and humid that I had to unbutton my shirt
completely to cool down ! Even at night, the air temperature was 30 C!


			THE HOLIDAY WINDS DOWN

After the Leonid storm we still had two days in Palau and a few extra little
excursions. The museum trip and crocodile farm were less-than exciting affairs,
and if I'd known I would have gone for an extra Dolphin swim session. In
addition, a plane flight over the islands (shared by the Crayford mob, Jon 
Shanklin and myself) was an interesting adventure and a final snorkelling trip,
to view the Giant Clams, was an added bonus. But the best aspect for me, and
so different to Zimbabwe, was that I was always with people I could relax with
and have a laugh with, which, to me, is the most important part of any holiday
and far better with a small group all based at the same hotel.
Another visit on the final day was to the local wood carving shop and I tried to
convince John that the one-upmanship value of having a Leonid woodcut made to
order in Palau was surely something he could'nt resist ?
We had a more relaxing trip back, as the journey was broken by a night in 
Singapore and myself, Nigel, Alex, Hazel, Jon Shanklin and a few others 
savoured the surreal atmosphere of Singapore at night, before dining on sandwiches
and Milkshakes at an outdoor western-style cafe.
Where next I wonder....? The 2002 Australia eclipse is the next big Explorers Astro
Holiday, but going such a long way for a short eclipse is questionable unless
there are loads of other attractions. I understand that there are tentative plans
for a Leonid Sinai Star party in Nov 2003 (despite no storms being expected) but
an Explorers Antarctic eclipse at that time is unlikely.

The final flight back to Heathrow was uneventful, and I suggested to Rita that as
Singapore Airlines had decided we were man & wife, I would be giving her my
dirty washing at Heathrow.....strangely, this suggestion did'nt go down too well !

I have to say, that, for me, the biggest buzz is getting back to Britain, getting
back to the most civilised place on Earth and smugly knowing that I am one of the
1% of humans who has a British Passport. It really is good to be back !!
Oh, and what were those stars thru the aircraft window on the trip to Guam?
The top bright one is Sirius, the bottom one is Canopus, and I'll leave you to
work out the rest (see figure).

Martin Mobberley