(meteorobs) Meteor Obs. Jan. 14 - Mathias, WVa

[George Gliba]

          Screech Owl Hill Observatory, Mountain Meadows
             Mathias, West Virginia 385710N 0785544W
                       January 13/14, 2010

     I was able to get two hours of meteor observing done Thursday
morning with good transparency, and was lucky to see my best fireball
in several years. The sporatic rate was also good, and a possible new
radiant of 4 or 5 swift meteors may have been seen about 15 degrees
south of the star Alphard (alpha Hydrae), where Hydra, Antlia, & Pyxis
come together.

     From 6:00 to 8:00 UT I was able to see 39 meteors, 30 of which
were sporadic, but 4 or 5 of these may have come from the southern
part of Hydra as mentioned above. There were actually two fireballs
seen, but the first one was only -3 magnitude. They were both from
the Cancer area. There was a -5 magnitude fireball seen coming from
the Antihelion (ANT) area at 6:33 UT seen low in the ESE. It had an
irregularly shaped green head with spikes, with orange sparks coming
off it! The -3 was seen at 6:03 UT and it came from the Southern Delta
Cancrid radiant. Below is the breakdown of the activity seen.


  Time (UT)  LM   %Obst. ANT  SSC  DLM  SPO Total   Comments     FOV 
06:00-07:00  6.3    0%    3    1    0   14   18   slight haze  09.0+05
07:00-08:00  6.4    0%    2    2    1   16   21   Hyd radiant? 10.0+05


Magnitude Distributions (Jan.13/14, 2010 - 06:00-08:00 UT - LM=6.35)

    -5  -3   0   1   2   3   4   5  total Ave.
ANT  1   0   0   0   3   1   0   0    5   0.8 
SSC  0   1   0   0   0   0   1   1    3   2.0
DLM  0   0   0   0   0   0   1   0    1   4.0
SPO  0   0   0   3   7   8   6   6   30   3.2


Clear Skies,
GWG