Jan 2/3 Meteors

The peak of the Quadrantids was predicted to happen a few hours after sunrise this morning (Tucson time, MST). Activity was elevated and 13 Quadrantids from 2 Tucson cameras and 20 from a sole San Diego camera is a dramatic increase compared to only 1 total (TUS and SDG) from the previous night. Still it was a poor showing compared to last year when a single Tucson camera picked up 73 Quadrantids.

There have been few reports of Quadrantid activity from last night. Most likely many observers took a pass on watching the shower due to the bright moonlight.

Bob’s notes from the night of Jan 2/3 : “Despite the bright moon, it was a good night for meteor activity. It was totally clear all night long except for a few patches of thin cirrus that occasionally drifted by. In addition to the Quadrantids, the sporadic count was abnormally high. My first thought was that perhaps some Quadrantids were misidentified as sporadics. After a close inspection of the plots it was determined that this was not the case.”

Obs  Date(UT)      Time    TOT SPO ANT DLM AHY JLE QUA
TUS  2010-01-03   10h 01m   30  12  2   3   0   0   13
SDG  2010-01-03   11h 59m   75  43  6   3   2   1   20

TUS - Camera in Tucson operated by Carl Hergenrother
SDG - Camera in San Diego operated by Bob Lunsford
TotTime - Total amount of time each camera looked for meteors
TOT - Total number of meteors detected
SPO - Sporadics (meteors not affiliated with any particular meteor shower)
ANT - Antihelions
DLM - December Leonis Minorids
AHY - Alpha Hydrids
JLE - January Leonids
QUA - Quadrantids

1 Comment

  1. hey i seen a red ball in the sky going in a horizontal direction looked ike a ball of fire i got two pictures but dont know what it is and the time i seen it was 11.20pm at 3rd of jan 2010 in ireland

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