(meteorobs) quadrantids 2009

meteoreye at comcast.net meteoreye at comcast.net
Sat Jan 3 13:00:58 EST 2009


Joe, if you read through the comments on the SDC article (always painful, since there are many dim bulbs there) you can see some other comments. I'm Meteor Wayne there :)

BTW, I have entered my data via the IMO online form, I will post a summary here on meteorobs shortly.

The IMO on-the-fly graph is here:


http://www.imo.net/live/quadrantids2009/

Wayne at the NJAA
-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: Skywayinc at aol.com 

> 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/) 
> 
> **************New year...new news. Be the first to know what is making 
> headlines. (http://www.aol.com/?ncid=emlcntaolcom00000026) 
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