(meteorobs) quadrantids 2009

Sat Jan 3 12:15:25 EST 2009

I have to admit, I was rather surprised at this  morning's display of 
Quadrantids.  First, I should note that at the moment  we have a rather extensive 
Christmas lighting display set up at my house  (located in Putnam Valley, NY).  

Most of the lights are on timers and automatically  shut-down at around 
midnight.  I do have a rather long (265-foot) driveway,  along which there are 
several decorative lanterns lamps which are on  sensors (on at dusk/off at dawn).  
Usually, to try and maintain dark skies,  I unscrew the bulbs, but during the 
holiday . . . to add to the festive scene,  we let them come on.  Those of 
course, then remain on through the rest of  the night. 

Yesterday, I debated whether to get out the ladder and  screwdriver, open 
each lantern and unscrew the bulbs (in anticipation of the  Quadrantids).  Well . 
. . it was cold . . . it was brisk . . . and  yeah, I'll admit it, I was just 
too damn lazy.  I never really have  had any real success with the "Quads" in 
the past . . . the Western US  were in the favored zone this year . . . and I 
suspected that I  wouldn't see all that much early this morning.

I decided to get out and see what I could see at  5:30 a.m. EST. I figured 
I'd be out for 10 or 15 minutes, see a couple and  then crawl back to my warm 
bed.  

Instead, I was out until 6:25 a.m.  By then,  twilight was already well 
advanced and there were a few patchy clouds to my  north-northeast.  But despite 
this, every couple of minutes I would  see a Quad; most were in the +1 to +2 
magnitude range and one was at least  0 mag. and left a nice 3-second train. 

After about 15-minutes, I started cursing my stupidity  ("You @#$% idiot!  
Why didn't you take care of those ^&%$ lantern  lights?!!").  

I headed to my back yard where it was noticeably darker  (LM = 5.2), but also 
where the surounding trees cut off more than  50-percent of my sky.  Despite 
all of this, I still managed to see a total  of 31 Quads in a 55-minute 
interval.  I'm sure that if I had better  prepared myself I would have seen many 
more. I should have been happy,  but paradoxically, I was kicking myself as I 
went back inside. 

But as bad as I felt then . . . I do have something to  fall back on: On 
December 19, I dedicated my Night Sky column at SPACE.com to  the Quadrantids, 
advising readers to circle January 3 on their  calendars. 

_http://www.space.com/spacewatch/081219-ns-meteor-shower.html_ 
(http://www.space.com/spacewatch/081219-ns-meteor-shower.html) 

And yesterday, I posted a reminder.  

A little while ago, I received a nice Email (below) from  a reader in Oregon 
who went out with her husband and apparently also saw a nice  show(er).  I 
hope many others got up and enjoyed this morning's display as  a result of what I 
had wrote.

-- joe r.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Joe:  Thanks so much for writing the article  published Dec 19th about 
the Quadrantids.  My husband and I found the  article on the MSNBC.com page 
and promptly marked our calendars.  It's now  the wee hours of January 3rd and 
we just returned from a 40 minute viewing  session outside in 11 degree F. 
weather.  We own a bed &  breakfast in Joseph, Oregon (far northeastern corner of 
the state)--in a  little town that doesn't have much in the way of ground 
scatter  lighting. 
The viewing was superb.  Unfortunately we had no  guests in the house to turn 
it into a "shower party" but the two of us enjoyed  it.  Now, we're thinking 
about announcing these kinds of events on our  website or blog.  All thanks to 
your article. 
Sincerely, 
Heather Tyreman 
Bronze Antler Bed & Breakfast, Inc. 
Joseph, OR, USA 
tel 541.432.0230 
web _www.bronzeantler.com_ (http://www.bronzeantler.com/) 

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