(meteorobs) Quadrantids, Sharon MA USA 2008 Jan 4

[meteoreye at comcast.net]

I think I failed you in the last NAMN notes..
Due to the low radiant elevation, observations before 3 AM (EST) are hammered. At most, under LM +6.5 skies, you might see half the ZHR at 3 AM, even less before then.
If you had +6.5 skies that would mean 60 per hour, if the 120/Hr peak ZHR occurred at 3 AM, which it did not. It was earlier, which reduced the rates even more.

If your skies are worse than LM +6.5 (which almost all of us in the northeast suffer from) the rate will be even lower.

I had only 4.3 QUA/Hr (under LM +5.5 skies) from midnight until 2 AM EST.
The last hour (between 5:08 EST and 6:08 EST) I had 35 QUA.
Pierre, who has 0.3 Mag deeper (LM +5.8) youthful eyes probably saw over 50.

I'll try and make clear the effect of radiant elevation and LM during the next few month's NAMN notes.

Wayne

-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: Richard Kramer <kramer at sria.com> 

> 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 
> 
> 
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