Wednesday, January 4, 2012

A Quadrantid - I think

The annual Quadrantid meteor shower was heralded for last night. It was nice and clear, the moon had set, not too cold (high 40's), no wind, so even though I had a sore throat coming on, I gathered up my stuff and went out back at 3:00 am to take a look for myself. I watched from 3:00 and gave up at 3:30: too cold and not enough meteors to hold my interest. That and I was afraid I'd aggravate that sore throat. It's better today though. I did see one fairly bright one. I'd guess it was at least magnitude 1, maybe even 0 or -1. The limiting magnitude was a bit less than 4. I could usually make out Upsilon Ursa Major which CdC pegs at 3.8 magnitude. Occasionally I even had difficulty with Delta UMa, where the handle meets the bowl. The quad I saw left a trail about as long as the dipper's handle and ran from about the general area of Canes Venatici to the edge of Leo, roughly NE to SW. I was watching in an area roughly 45 degrees in diameter, with loads of light pollution. The worst time was when my neighbor's motion light picked me up and lit up the white fence post just to my right like a beacon. That only lasted a few minutes and then I was back in my nice 'dark' viewing spot. I would have liked to have been out longer and might have if I had a good backyard lounge chair and a blanket. Perhaps if we are back in MO in April and the viewing conditions are good I'll try to catch another shower and try to document it even better.

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