(meteorobs) Quadrantids from Oregon

[Wes Stone]

Tuesday evening was pretty cloudy, and I didn't have very high hopes for 
Wednesday morning Quadrantids, but I set my alarm just in case. I woke up to 
clear skies with a slight haze around the horizon. When I looked out my 
window, I saw a bright Quad within a few seconds, so I prepared to go out.

I began my watch at 1105 UT (3:05am PST). Skies were a little bit hazy with 
some residual moonlight scattering but a reasonable limiting magnitude of 
6.4. Quadrantids were active but a bit slow to start out, averaging 7 per 
15-minute interval. The skies got nice and clear and the limiting magnitude 
peaked at 6.9, but almost immediately some clouds and haze started moving in 
from the west. I battled various degrees of obscuration and limiting 
magnitudes that dropped as low as 6.1 in the clear areas. The Quadrantids 
kept coming at about the same rate, however.

By 1230 UT, the clouds had moved on leaving a bit of haze that also 
eventually dissipated. Quadrantid rates picked up to about 1 per minute and 
remained there for the rest of the watch. The limiting magnitude climbed 
back up to 6.8 at best. My best interval was 11 Quadrantids in 8 minutes 
between 1327 and 1335 UT. I carried on observing until 1405 UT.

All in all, I saw 124 Quadrantids, 2 Anthelions, and 32 sporadics in 2.9 
hours of observing time. The brightest Quadrantids were a -4 and a -3, and 
there were 5 Quads of magnitude -2. Most of the Quadrantids were white or 
colorless, but a couple of the bright ones were orange, one yellow, and one 
blue.

A good way to start out what looks to be a promising year for meteor shower 
observing!

Wes Stone
Chiloquin, OR
http://skytour.homestead.com/met2012.html

--
So he slept on a mountain.
In a sleeping bag underneath the stars
he would lie awake and count them.
And the gray fountain spray of the great Milky Way
would never let him die alone.
--Wilco