(meteorobs) Observation January 3/4 2012

Tue Feb 14 01:11:10 EST 2012

I had the pleasure of observing this year's Quadrantids maximum with  
Ivan Zuger, Nicholas Zuger and Ivo Leupi.  Although the forecasts  
called for clear skies through most of the night, it appeared that the  
weather would begin deteriorating before dawn, just when the shower  
could be expected to be at its best.  At almost the last minute, a  
decision was made to travel east of Ottawa in the hopes of gaining  
some time before the cirrus clouds would move in.  Ivo, Ivan and  
Nicholas first met at the usual Tim Horton's late in the evening, and  
then we took off together; determined to see this shower no matter how  
bitterly cold the weather was.  I was very happy that I could manage  
to get a few brave souls to join me for meteor observing, under one of  
the coldest nights of the year!  We were so well prepared that it felt  
like we were off for a polar expedition!

We decided to go to the Pendleton Airport, seeing that so little snow  
had fallen up to this point, that access to the aerodrome's paved  
field wouldn't pose any issues.  Some of the members going there have  
also kept the roadway plowed which further facilitated things.  We  
gradually made our way to the airfield, and begun our setup.  The  
night soon reached -23C (-9F) with 73% humidity, though we were very  
well prepared with a number of portable heaters, heavy winter gear and  
thick sleeping bags.  Ivo setup his equatorial mount, a platform that  
would hold our three automated DSLR cameras, and then he settled to  
observe meteors casually.  Ivan and Nicholas tried their hands at some  
astrophotography and spent time enjoying the winter sky with  
refractor.  Nicholas, a highly enthusiastic 11 years old, was  
interested in learning meteor photography techniques with a DSLR.  He  
is a quick learner :)  He was rewarded with as many as 17 captured  
meteors and two "UFO's ;)

The beautiful tranquil night made us forget about the cold.  The moon  
descending into the west presented a beautiful sight, seeming to hang  
among a few distant cirrus clouds.

After all the cameras got going, I eventually settled down into my  
sleeping bag for good, signing on at 2:15am (local).  With the gibbous  
Moon still up, the sky was a bit bright with a limit mag of 5.8.  The  
Quadrantids (QUA) were starting to wake up though, with 25 members  
seen in the first hour.  Things got got a lot busier in the second  
hour (starting at 3:15am EST) with 56 meteors (including 49 QUA).  At  
one point, the sky lit up with three quick flashes, as a major QUA  
fireball flew out of sight.  Ivo was lucky enough to see that one!   
The most active 15 minutes QUA period was between 3:30-3:45am local  
(8:30-8:45 UT) where I counted 16 QUA.  Interestingly enough, the  
QUA's did seem to brighten quite significantly approximately an hour  
later, just as the rates seemed to be declining.  It was good timing  
for the brighter QUA's, because at the same time, the unavoidable  
cirrus clouds were beginning to take over most of the sky.  I managed  
to continue until 5:55am (local) with about 20% cloud cover in my  
field of view.

Even though the QUA did not perform as spectacularly as they did in  
2009, it was still a beautiful night.  At 5am, Ivan appeared exhausted  
from the full night out in the cold, but he was spell bounded by the  
night... He'd tell me "I really should go now but I'm afraid I'll miss  
something good" :)  Ivan saw numerous long meteors on the opposite  
side of my field of view, even through overcast areas.  Judging by his  
shouts, they must have been quite nice.  It's always a treat catching  
such an elusive shower, and I was glad I could share it with good  
friends.

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario

DATE: January 3/4 2012
BEGIN: 07:15 UT (02:15 EST) END: 10:55 UT (05:55 EST)
OBSERVER: Pierre Martin (MARPI)
LOCATION: Long: -75.092 West; Lat: 45.568 North
Observing site: Pendleton Airport, Ontario, CANADA
RECORDING METHOD: talking clock/tape recorder, plotting
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVED SHOWERS:
Quadrantids (QUA) - 15:18 (230) +50
Antihelion (ANT) - 07:40 (115) +20
Alpha Hydrids (AHY) - 08:31 (128) -08
January Leonids (JLE) - 09:50 (148) +24
December Leonis Minorids (DLM) - 11:34 (174) +24
SPO (sporadics)
----------------------------------------------------------

OBSERVING PERIODS: 0 = none seen; / = shower not observed

PERIOD(UT)___FIELD_____Teff___F______LM____QUA_SPO_ANT_AHY_JLE_DLM

07:15-08:15__186 +47___1.00___1.00___5.83___25___5___1___0___0___1
08:15-09:16__207 +42___1.01___1.00___6.13___49___6___1___0___0___0
09:16-10:16__221 +42___1.00___1.20___6.20___29___5___0___0___0___0
10:16-10:55__224 +36___0.65___1.25___6.20___18___2___0___0___0___0

TOTALS:________________3.66_________________121__18__2___0___0___1  =  
142

Notes: The first column (Period UT) refers to observing periods, in  
Universal Time. The second column (Field) is the area in in the sky  
where I centered my field of view. The third column (TEFF) Teff is  
simply the total time during the observing session spent actually  
watching the sky. Breaks and/or dead time are not included in the  
reported Teff. It is reported in decimal format such that a 60 minute  
observing session would be reported as Teff = 1.00. The column (LM) is  
the average naked eye limiting magnitude seen.  All following columns  
indicate the number of meteors for each shower observed.  For more  
info, see: http://www.namnmeteors.org/guidechap2.html
------------------------

MAGNITUDE DISTRIBUTIONS:

SHOWER
_____-4__-3__-2__-1___0__+1__+2__+3__+4__+5______AVE

QUA___1___2___3___5___9__16__19__22__28__16_____+2.40
SPO___0___0___0___1___1___2___0___6___7___1_____+2.89
ANT___0___0___0___0___0___0___0___2___0___0_____+3.00
DLM___0___0___0___0___1___0___0___0___0___0_____+0.00

Note: Magnitude -8 is comparable to a quarter moon, magnitude -4 with  
the planet Venus, magnitude -1 with the brightest star Sirius,  
magnitude +2 to +3 with most average naked eye stars and magnitude +6  
to +7 are the faintest stars the naked eye can see under typical dark  
conditions. A meteor of at least magnitude -3 is considered a fireball  
(IMO definition). The above table contains the magnitudes from all  
observed meteors, and the average (last column) for showers.
------------------------

SKY OBSCURED (FOV) (UT):  10% from 09:15-09:35, 20% from 09:35-10:55  
(increasing cirrus clouds)

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

Dead time: 0.83 min (breaks)

Breaks (UT): 9:09 (30sec), 10:06 (20 sec)

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