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(meteorobs) Quadrantids

After a 2.5 hour drive to the Borrego Springs area of the Anza Borrego
Desert to view the Quadrantids I discovered I had forgotten to bring my
sleeping bag and pillow. It was already 40o F at 4 o'clock in the
afternoon.  I decided to stay till one half hour after the end of
evening twilight, 2:30 UT,  to evaluate the site since it was new to
me.  It was the County Dump, East longitude 116o 18', and 33o 15' North
latitude at 520 ft elevation.  At 2:20 UT after I was comfortably
settled in a director's chair the a most magnificent meteor came up out
of the North.  I picked it up at about 30o elevation and it rose up
passing about 10o beyond the zenith.  It was about 1.5 magnitude and
about half way on its course it dimmed briefly only to brighten again.
What made the meteor magnificent to me was that it was surrounded with
sparkles a good bit like the Leonids I saw in 1998.  The color was
orange.  A line back to the Horizon placed it about 18o west of North.
At 2:25 UT I saw on more Quadrantid.  It was -1.0 magnitude, white,
sparkling like the first one but a much shorter path length though I
picked it up much further from the radiant.  At 3:00 I packed it up and
drove home.

    By the way, I would not recommend the site for two reasons.  Most of
the horizon is well illuminated by surrounding development on the other
side of hills and mountains.  A nearby Borrego airport has night landing
lights on and small private planes landing lights blink brightly on the
site.  The LM was around 4.0 while I was there and I don't think it
would improve much under better conditions.  There were no signs of
clouds either before or after sunset.

    At home between 8:00 and 9:00 UT under a very limited portion of the
sky, 45o by 80o I saw three very bright, -1.5 to -2.0 magnitude
meteors.  Though one sparkled like the Quandrantids described above I
could not verify that any of them were Quadrantids due to limited
viewing area.  The sky LM was about 3.5 to 4.0 in my viewing area.  My
home is West 118o 03' 30", North 34o 07' 30" at 950 ft elevation.

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