(meteorobs) Quadrantids, Sharon MA USA 2008 Jan 4

[Richard Kramer]

The night of the peak! Colder than last night at 5 deg F (-15 C), but 
the winds were much more benign. Unfortunately, without the drying 
winds, it was trickier to position myself so that there were enough 
air flow across the lenses of my eyeglasses to keep them frost free.

I got a late start and didn't manage to log on until 0600 UTC. Barely 
2 minutes into the segment,I was treated to a long, swift, golden 
beautiful, though not persistent train, perfectly aligned with the 
radiant and passing just east of Leo. I made the mistake of thinking, 
"Looks like this will be an exciting session."   .... Wrong!

The remainder of that time slice was totally dead, save for a couple 
of short, unimpressive sporadics (mag 3 and 2).

The next 15 minute time slice was even worse; one mag 4 sporadic 
which I would have easily missed if it hadn't travelled right through 
the center of my field of view. I passed the time by listening to the 
occasional explosive crack of tree branches reacting to the cold 
temperatures. The 1 square mile of ice on the nearby lake was also 
entertaining, ringing like a drumhead every time a new crack erupted.

Slice number 3 wasn't any better. With my mind turning to tomorrow's 
full day of planned work, I decided that, I'd memorized enough of the 
features in this segment of the sky and should just as well use the 
time more productively by sleeping in a warm bed. Then, with barely a 
minute to go, a near twin of the first QUA of the night, not quite as 
bright (mag 1), went streaking right through the heart of Leo. This 
was followed by one more QUA which tore through the top of Gemini 
seconds before my interval timer (set for 15 minute intervals) 
sounded the end of that time slice. These last two QUAs tempted me to 
log yet another slice, but I decided that the shower was just playing 
with me and these were likely the meteoric equivalent of a sucker 
hole in the clouds. This was confirmed as I kept my eye on the sky 
during the 10 minute walk home seeing nothing of note save the blood 
red eye of the war god. I was soon in bed and was shepherded to sleep 
by the visual memory of the unblinking, spectacularly bright stare of 
the red planet on the inside of my eyelids.

Results (with the aid of the imo.net electronic reporting sheet) follow.

Regards,
Richard



// Header section
night    	 2008-01-03/04
begin    	 2008-01-04 0610
end      	 2008-01-04 0655
observer	 "Richard" "Kramer"
location	 71 10 52 W, 42 06 32 N
elevation	 61 meters
site    	 "Lake Massapoag, Sharon MA" "United States"
reporter	 "kramer at sria.com"

// Shower section
shower	QUA 230 +49
shower	SPO

// Number section
// 	Interval  	RA  	Dec 	Teff 	F    	Lm  	   QUA 	   SPO
period	0610-0625 	140 	+45 	0.220 	1.10 	4.30	 C   1 	 C   2
period	0625-0640 	140 	+45 	0.230 	1.10 	4.30	 C   0 	 C   1
period	0640-0655 	140 	+45 	0.230 	1.10 	4.30	 C   2 	 C   0

// Magnitude section
//          	Show 
Interval     -6    -5    -4    -3    -2    -1    +0    +1    +2    +3 
    +4    +5    +6    +7    Tot
distribution 
QUA 	0610-0655   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   1.0   1.0   1.0 
  0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0    3.0
distribution 
SPO 	0610-0655   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   0.0   1.0 
  1.0   1.0   0.0   0.0   0.0    3.0

// Personal comments
Temperature -15 C
Winds W 3 Km / hr