Welcome back, Kim! You can always play in our sandbox. Just be careful because the cat hangs around in it, too. Happy New Year to you! On Sat, Jan 4, 2014 at 7:22 AM, Kim Hyatt <kimharch@cut.net> wrote:
Howdy folks. I've been away for awhile, in part due to Bill Gates' shoddy products, in part because of family/personal issues. I hope it's OK to come back and play with y'all.
I just got back from doing a little meteor watching. Even though the Quadrantid peak was supposed to occur yesterday afternoon Utah time I wanted to see what I could this morning. I left the house a little past 4:00 for one of the more convenient dark sites for me, about one-half mile away. (You should all be jealous.) I made a serious count from 4:30 to 5:30. I observed nine Quadrantids and five sporadics during that hour but I saw nothing spectacular. Two of each were perhaps first magnitude and left short-lived trains; the others were fainter. The weather was actually more interesting. The temperature was 29F when I left home and 35F when I got back about 6:00. This time last month our low reached -29F (December 6). When I spent a couple of hours early on December 14 hoping to see a few Geminids the temperature was about -15F, so this morning's heat wave was unexpected. I've been colder in mid-summer at some of our favorite observing sites.
Happy New Year to everyone!
Kim _______________________________________________