AM Sunday March 16, 2014 - Observing Notes - First Meteor of 2014

  Although skies were clear at sunset, afterward for most of the night we had on-and-off scattered high clouds in the area, There were long periods of clear sky and then long periods of scattered high clouds. The Moon was just hours from Full in southern Leo, so it was a bright night. Winds picked up and became gusty after dark and the temperature dropped rapidly. On Saturday we'd been in the mid-50's F but by 1:00 AM we were down to 35 F with a wind chill of 26 F.

  Though I played around a lot with the idea of getting out in the lawn chair to do my first "professional" meteor watch of 2014 to report to the IMO, the scattered high clouds and moonlight discouraged this. I walked out into the back yard several times from evening through after midnight to assess the sky conditions, but whenever I thought the sky was clear and I got motivated to do the meteor watch, I'd go outside fifteen minutes later to find out that more cirrus clouds had drifted in!

  However, the night wasn't a total loss. At 1:09 AM (5:09 UT March 16) I spotted what turned out to be the first meteor I've seen and documented in 2014! It was 2nd magnitude and fairly slow-moving. I spotted it over the roof of our house as it passed from Corona Borealis to Hercules, where it flared out. It left a very brief train in its wake that lasted probably a second or less. I took the time to really note the position in the sky where I saw it begin and end, and the time that I saw it. Then I made careful notes when I was back inside the house.

  The plot below was made from memory using the BRNO Atlas sheet #5. The meteor itself is in the upper left corner with the arrow showing the direction of movement. I also plotted the rough position of the Anthelion Radiant in the far lower right corner, because I'm fairly sure from its slow speed, path length, and direction that this was an Anthelion Meteor that I spotted this morning.

    The sky was so clear after 1:00 AM that I thought about getting out for about an hour again to do the meteor session, but when I went outside just before 2:00 AM high clouds had started to drift in all over the sky again. There was a very impressive bright ring around the Moon that extended through the Sickle of Leo to the eastern edge of Leo and Virgo, and faded away to my south where the tree branches obstructed some of the view.