The last, best Leonid meteor shower for at least the next 96 years was clouded out across most of Europe and fell well short of scientists' expectations across North America.
Although scientists got the timing right, the Leonids appeared at rates of several hundred to a thousand an hour in most locations, instead of the thousands predicted by the top computer models.
Even so, yesterday's display was more than enough to dazzle the hardy Marylanders who braved the cold and wished away some pesky clouds to watch the early-morning spectacle from Alpha Ridge Park in Howard County.
"Whoa! That was a bright one! Give us some more!" shouted Harold Williams as the shower revved up just before 5 a.m.
An astronomy professor at Montgomery County College at Takoma Park, Williams joined well over 100 meteor watchers at the star party, organized by the Howard Astronomical League.
With temperatures in the 30s, many of them bundled in blankets and sleeping bags, huddled on beach furniture, sipped coffee and retreated to their cars periodically for warmth.
"This is really cool," said Leezy Leibtag, 16, a student at Shalheves High School in Park Heights. A first-time meteor watcher, she showed up with eight female classmates who risked a bleary day at school to see the "shooting stars."
The Leonid meteor shower occurs each year in mid-November as Earth passes through the orbital track of the comet Tempel-Tuttle and encounters dust and debris left in the comet's wake.
Normally, it produces 10 to 15 meteors per hour as the high-speed particles sizzle through the atmosphere. But every 33 years, soon after the comet returns and crosses Earth's orbit, the shower can soar to "storm" levels - in the thousands. Tempel-Tuttle's last pass was in 1998. Leonid rates last year reached several hundred per hour in Maryland.
The best forecasts for this year's Leonids called for two bursts of meteors - one between 11 p.m. and midnight Eastern Time on Monday, and the second between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. yesterday.
The first event was centered over Europe, and little of it was seen in the United States. Observers in Madrid reported rates up to 1,300 per hour - about 21 per minute - but most locations had clouds and fog.
The second peak was forecast for the hours before dawn on the East Coast.
At Alpha Ridge Park yesterday morning, despite fleeting clouds and the glare from a full moon, sky-watchers spotted several hundred meteors between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. - peaking at 15 per minute at 5:40 a.m. Sometimes they flashed across the star-specked sky in pairs and triplets. Many bright ones left fleeting, sparkly trains, like Fourth of July fireworks.
Heads spun. "There's another one!" said Charles Trainor, 55, of Catonsville at the shower's peak. "Another one! And there's one behind us."
Meteor-watchers got an added treat when the International Space Station passed over just after 5 a.m. - a yellowish dot moving quickly from southeast to northwest. "That was worth the price of admission," said Rick Walsh, 52, of Ferndale.
At 15 per minute, the peak rate worked out to 900 meteors per hour.
Similar counts were common across the United States, including 500 to 600 meteors per hour reported by NASA's Leonid Multi-Instrument Airborne Campaign in Arizona. But all the reports fell well short of the predicted thousands.
"What this indicates is that whatever models everybody had come to for their predictions this year are still somewhat in error," said Gary Kronk, an astronomer and science writer based in Missouri.
"It's a shame, because this was their last, best chance to prove their models, and a lot of these guys were convinced they would nail it this year, or come close to it at least, " he said.
The Leonids are not expected to produce storm-level displays after the comet's 2033 or 2066 returns. Scientists will have to test their models on lesser showers or leave their theories for their grandchildren to test in 2099 - the next return of Tempel-Tuttle thought capable of triggering a Leonid storm.
The crowd at Alpha Ridge seemed pleased nonetheless.
"This is a moment that we'll never see again," said John Cunningham, 53, of Arnold, who turned out with blankets, lawn chairs and two old friends to watch the spectacle. "So yes, we're trying to take advantage of it and see Mother Nature at work."