2008 Quadrantid Meteor Shower; best of the year so far :)

[MeteorWayne]

From the gathering data, it looks like the QUADS peaked between 0400 and 0430 UT.<br /><br />IMO on the fly chart here <br /><br />Peter Jenniskens Quadrantid MAC mission here <br /><br />I observed from 0536 to 0639 UT<br />(6 QUA, 2 COM, 2 ANT, 1 ICA, 2 JLE, 1 ELE, 9 SPO) in 1.383 Hours<br />and from 1008 and 1108 UT<br />(35 QUA, 1 JLE, 8 SPO) in 1.000 Hour.<br /><br />3 hours of clouds in between <img src="/images/icons/tongue.gif" /><br /><br />It was -11 C (+12 F) but fortunately, light wind.<br /><br />Meteor Wayne <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[deapfreeze]

I only managed to see 3 as the cold and cloud cover was to much for me this time. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#0000ff"><em>William ( deapfreeze ) Hooper</em></font></p><p><font size="1">http://deapfreeze-amateur-astronomy.tk/</font></p><p> </p> </div>

 

[aphh]

Excellent. That data looks pretty telling.<br /><br />So it appears I missed the peak activity and saw what was left of it in the morning. <br /><br />Edit: upon closer inspection, the activity profile does not show hourly data for 4th of Jan. but the hourly report seems to confirm a sharp drop at UTC 5:14, which would be very close to what I experienced. <br /><br />Yes, I indeed managed to miss the peak activity this time.

 

[3488]

Quadrantids from 13,720 metres / 45,000 feet.<br /><br />I am afraid that I've nothing to report. I was totally clouded out.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

Actually you were observing well before the peak.<br />The rates were rising at those times.<br /><br />The ZHR shows an almost linear increase from 11 at 1800 UT on the 3rd to 92 about 1030 on the 4th, <br />then quickly dropped back to 50 by 1115 UT.<br />There does appear to have been a plateau from 0000-0600 UT on the 4th with a ZHR between 45 and 55.<br />This is very typical of the short activity peak of the Quadrantids.<br />The rate was above 50% of the peak for only about 11 hours.<br /><br /><font color="yellow">"I was out on 2 separate occasions, at about 3 am local time there was some meteor activity, yellow rapid and short-lived meteors in pretty tight sector of the sky, about 10 flashes in 45 minutes. Because it didn't seem to increase I headed back inside (-3 Centigrade). "</font><br /><br />Thats around 0100 UT<br />IMO ZHR at that time was 42 +/-3<br />This period was very well covered with more than a dozen observers throughout Europe and surrounding areas.<br /><br /><font color="yellow">"Then in the morning at 6.30 am local time I decided to have another look and saw about 10 in 30 minutes, again short-lived yellow meteors in the exact same sector (the sector had moved, ofcourse). <br /><br />But after 30 minutes it seemed to stop altogether and I didn't see one meteor anymore in about 10 - 15 minutes. </font><br /><br />That would be about 0430 UT.<br />IMO ZHR then was 57 +/- 3<br />It's not unusual for there to be hot periods and lulls in activity.<br />This period is the overlap bewteen western europe and the eastern US, a dozen or less observers at that time.<br /><br />The peak appears to have occurred around 6 hours later ~ 1030 UT based on the latest data in so far. That's exactly in the middle of the final hour that I observed in NJ. There were 5 or less observers in the US braving the frigid (for us) temperatures at any one time.<br /><br />As of now the peak ZHR from the IMO was 92 +/-10 at 1037 UT<br />That's about at the end of the US eas <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[aphh]

Thanks for the clarification. Maybe next time I'll have a bit more informed look. <br /><br />The Perseids were great last August, but I didn't think I could have counted the number of meteors sighted (which were plenty indeed). <br /><br />Edit: the perseids were mostly red, right? These seemed to be yellow. Then I have spotted green meteors.<br /><br />It's interesting that the things that left the residue were composed of different materials.