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(meteorobs) 1998 Quadrantid Obser. ZAYGE




Due to the weather, my odds of seeing the 1998 Quadrantids this morning seemed
relatively slim. Driving to my Descanso Observatory(Calif.), I ran into a
steady rain. I made the decision earlier in the day if it was cloudy at the
observatory that my daughter and I were gonna make a run for the desert to an
area near Yuma, Arizona called Ogilby. So we packed the truck up and headed
east. As I just entered the desert, I was able to see patches of stars here
and there. By the time I got to Ogilby, the sky all to my North and East were
clear. After setting up, we decided to nap until midnight. As the midnight
hour approached, so did an extensive layer of cirrus clouds from the
southwest. I thought the nite was gonna be lost. But at about 1:45 am, I
noticed the clouds had dissipated in every direction. I got the camera's going
and began recording data into my tape recorder.  Before dawn, I recorded 3.5
Teff hours without a cloud in sight with an average LM of 6.0. Quadrantid
activity wasn't very great however. For that period, I only seen 38
Quadrantids and 25 sporadics for a total of 63 meteors. The brightest were one
-3 QUA, three -2 QUA and two -1 QUA. The most active hour was between
03h00-04h08 am with 17 QUA and 9 sporadics. Observing periods are shown below
for the night:

9h45-11h00UT = Teff 1.0 = 7 QUA, 8 Spor
11h00-12h08UT = Teff 1.0 = 17QUA, 9 Spor
12h08-5h35 UT = Teff 1.5 = 14 QUA, 8 Spor
George Zay

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