(meteorobs) Quadrantids from East Central Georgia

The clouds here refused to dissipate until sometimes after midnight. I "took a nap" at midnight, waiting for the skies to clear. I meant to doze for twenty or thirty minutes but instead did not wake up until 1:30 AM local time!!

But the weather had cleared revealing a +6 and better sky. I hurried out to my sight and was observing by 7:06 UT and was able to get three periods in until around the beginning of a planned fourth period, when deer hunters interrupted me and I lost over fifteen minutes time. I wound up with three usable periods.

Not as impressive given that I was observing them several hours after the peak, the quads still put on a fine show. I has a fair mix of bright and dim meteors, but any fireballs were seen either on the horizon or as flashes which both myself and my observing partner saw. So there were fireballs, I just never got to see one directly. The Quad rates grew by roughly 10 per hour from hour to hour (16/27/37) and rates were still quite good during my interrupted fourth hour.

But I never got the higher rates I saw in 2001. The SPO rates were rather strong between 8:00 and 10:30 UT. And it was COLD!! My thermometer read 29 degrees (F) at 4:30 AM local time. All in all it was a very good observing session and given that I've been able to catch the Quadrantids on three out of four attempts in the past four years, I'm not disappointed at all.

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OBSERVER: Kim S. Youmans (YOUKI) DATE: 12-03/04-2003
BEGIN:07:06 UT END 10:17UT LOCATION: Treutlen Co, Ga.
82. 24' 25" W; 32. 24' 45" N
METHOD: Tape Elev. 240 ft
Facing East, sky 0 %0bscured
Two Breaks (between periods)
1. 08:06 to 08:09 UT (3 minutes)
2. 09:12 to 09:15 UT (3 minutes)

Period 1 7:06-8:06 UT SPO(4) QUA(16)
Dead time = 0 min Teff = 1.0
Avg. LM = +6.24 FOV Mid period 1, 10hr +25
Sol Long. 283.476

Period 2 8:09-9:12 UT SPO(9) QUA(27)
Dead time = 2 min Teff = 1.03
Avg. LM = +6.39 FOV Mid period 11hrs min +25
Sol Long. 283.520

Period 3 9:15-10:17 UT SPO(8) QUA(37)
Dead time = 2 min Teff = 1.0
Avg. LM = +6.38 FOV Mid period 11hr 10 min +28
Sol. long. 283.565

Limiting Magnitudes
07:30 UT (IMO 4) +6.20 (IMO 9) +6.27
08:00 UT (IMO 4) +6.20 (IMO 9) +6.27
08:30 UT (IMO 4) +6.37 (IMO 9) +6.40
09:00 UT (IMO 4) +6.37 (IMO 9) +6.40
09:30 UT (IMO 3) +6.35 (IMO 9) +6.40
10:00 UT (IMO 3) +6.35 (IMO 9) +6.40

Magnitude Distribution
P1
QUA(16) +1(1) +2(4) +3(1) +4(7) +5(3)
SPO(4) +1(1) +2(0) +3(1) +4(1) +5(1)
P2
QUA(27) -1(2) 0(2) +1(1) +2(5) +3(5) +4(7) +5(5)
SPO(9) +2(2) +3(2) +4(1) +5(4)
P3
QUA(37) -2(1) -1(1) 0(2) +1(4) +2(9) +3(7) +4(7) +5(5) +6(1)
SPO(8) +1(1) +2(3) +3(1) +4(2) +5(1)