I had excellent success in observing and photographing the 2016 Quadrantids maximum!
Shane Finnigan joined me, and we drove to Otter Lake to setup at his cottage.  Along the way, we were quite skeptical about the weather, judging by how thick the cloud cover was all above us.  It was just overcast everywhere.  The forecast showed a possible clearing to the north so we figured it was worth a shot.  After a 1.5 hour drive, we arrived to the cottage and the sky was clear!  YES!!!!!  But first, we had to clear the driveway from a few feet of fresh snow accumulation, and then make ourselves a path to the back of the cottage where we wanted to observe.  As we shovelled, by chance I spotted a bright mag -4 earthgrazing Quadrantid moving horizontally about 60 degrees long, behind the thick tree line.  It was pretty awesome!  Once we were done, we had a nice rectangular shovelled area for our chairs and cameras, as well as a path to the cottage and to the front.  I then got the observing gear and cameras out, and overhead I was already seeing quite a number of Quadrantids without even trying!

It was a cold night, down to -23C but all the earlier exercise perked us up.  It was also very much well worth the effort!  The Quadrantids were somewhere near full tilt with excellent hourly rates of 43, 53, 66 and 47!  I was impressed with these rates, especially with the rising Quarter Moon and the occasional clouds/haze during the last two hours.  The Quadrantids seemed to come in various spurts and quiet spells.  At times, nothing was seen for several minutes, then suddenly a burst of several quads all fanning out in different directions!

There was also a bit of everything — a very entertaining meteor watch!  Here’s some of the other highlights:

At 3:05am, an impressive mag -3 sporadic that fragmented into three pieces!  WOW!!!  Just a minute later, a mag -4 Quadrantid descended into the West with a long 30 degrees path — smack in the middle of my camera’s field 😀

At 4:57am, a -3 sporadic earthgrazer shot 60 degrees, travelling from south to north and producing a long train!

At 5:00am, as many as six Quads appeared including a point meteor seen almost exactly on the radiant!  Another point meteor was seen at 5:48am.

It was a cold but wow, what very rewarding night for sure!!  240 meteors in four hours.  Shane and I both really enjoyed it!

My camera managed to capture many, many Quads and some of the earthgrazers and bright sporadics too!  Please see the photos on my Smugmug site below (scroll down the page to see all the images and a time lapse of the mag -4 Quad persistent train):

https://pmartin.smugmug.com/Astronomy/20160104-Quadrantids-Otter-Lake-QC/

January 3/4 2016, 07:45-11:47 UT (02:45-06:47 EST)
Location: Otter Lake, Quebec, Canada
(Long: -76.407; Lat: 45.829)

Observed showers:
Anthelion (ANT) – 07:40 (115) +20
January Leonids (JLE) – 09:52 (148) +24
Dec. Leonis Minorids (DLM) – 11:36 (174) +24
Quadrantids (QUA) – 15:16 (229) +50

07:45-08:45 UT (02:45-03:45 EST); clear; 3/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.40; facing N50 deg; teff 1.00 hr; temp: -21C
QUA: forty-three: -4; 0; +1(5); +2(9); +3(7); +4(9); +5(11)
DLM: four: +3(2); +4; +5
Sporadics: four: -3; +1; +3(2)
Total meteors: Fifty-one

08:45-09:46 UT (03:45-04:46 EST); clear; 3/5 trans; F 1.00; LM 6.30; facing N50 deg; teff 1.01 hr; temp: -22C
QUA: fifty-three: 0(2); +1(3); +2(11); +3(9); +4(19); +5(9)
ANT: one: +4
JLE: one: +2
DLM: one: +4
Sporadics: six: +2(2); +4(2); +5(2)
Total meteors: Sixty-two

09:46-10:46 UT (04:46-05:46 EST); clear; 3/5 trans; F 1.05 (20% clouds from 10:00-10:15 UT); LM 6.30; facing N50 deg; teff 1.00 hr; temp: -23C
QUA: sixty-six: -1; 0; +1(4); +2(15); +3(16); +4(19); +5(10)
ANT: one: +3
DLM: one: +4
Sporadics: six: -3; 0; +2; +3; +5(2)
Total meteors: Seventy-four

10:46-11:47 UT (05:46-06:47 EST); clear; 3/5 trans; F 1.08 (10% clouds from 11:10-11:30 UT and 15% from 11:30-11:47 UT);
LM 5.94; facing N50 deg; teff 1.01 hr; temp: -24C
QUA: forty-seven: -1; 0; +1(4); +2(18); +3(11); +4(12)
DLM: one: +2
Sporadics: five: +2; +3(2); +4(2)
Total meteors: Fifty-three

=============================================================
SHORT PERIODS (number of meteors, in 10 minutes TEFF periods)

07:45-07:55 UT; FOV RA 192 dec +79; LM 6.40; teff 0.166; QUA: six; DLM: one; SPO: one
07:55-08:05 UT; FOV RA 192 dec +79; LM 6.40; teff 0.166; QUA: four; DLM: one
08:05-08:15 UT; FOV RA 192 dec +79; LM 6.40; teff 0.166; QUA: eleven; SPO: one
08:15-08:25 UT; FOV RA 192 dec +79; LM 6.40; teff 0.166; QUA: six
08:25-08:35 UT; FOV RA 192 dec +79; LM 6.40; teff 0.166; QUA: eight; DLM: one; SPO: one
08:35-08:45 UT; FOV RA 192 dec +79; LM 6.40; teff 0.166; QUA: eight; DLM: one; SPO: one
08:45-08:55 UT; FOV RA 204 dec +80; LM 6.30; teff 0.166; QUA: eleven; ANT: one; SPO: three
08:55-09:05 UT; FOV RA 204 dec +80; LM 6.30; teff 0.158; QUA: nine
09:05-09:15 UT; FOV RA 204 dec +80; LM 6.30; teff 0.166; QUA: seven; DLM: one; SPO: three
09:15-09:25 UT; FOV RA 204 dec +80; LM 6.30; teff 0.166; QUA: ten; JLE: one
09:25-09:35 UT; FOV RA 204 dec +80; LM 6.30; teff 0.166; QUA: seven
09:35-09:45 UT; FOV RA 204 dec +80; LM 6.30; teff 0.166; QUA: seven
09:45-09:55 UT; FOV RA 219 dec +80; LM 6.30; teff 0.166; QUA: eleven; SPO: two
09:55-10:05 UT; FOV RA 219 dec +80; LM 6.30; teff 0.166; QUA: eleven; ANT: one; SPO: one  (20% clouds)
10:05-10:15 UT; FOV RA 219 dec +80; LM 6.30; teff 0.166; QUA: thirteen; SPO: one (20% clouds)
10:15-10:25 UT; FOV RA 219 dec +80; LM 6.30; teff 0.166; QUA: eleven; DLM: one
10:25-10:35 UT; FOV RA 219 dec +80; LM 6.30; teff 0.166; QUA: ten; SPO: one
10:35-10:45 UT; FOV RA 219 dec +80; LM 6.30; teff 0.166; QUA: twelve; SPO: one
10:45-10:55 UT; FOV RA 234 dec +80; LM 6.30; teff 0.166; QUA: twenty; SPO: two
10:55-11:05 UT; FOV RA 234 dec +80; LM 6.30; teff 0.166; QUA: eight; SPO: one
11:05-11:15 UT; FOV RA 234 dec +80; LM 6.30; teff 0.166; QUA: five; SPO: one  (10% clouds)
11:15-11:25 UT; FOV RA 234 dec +80; LM 6.30; teff 0.158; QUA: six  (10% clouds)
11:25-11:35 UT; FOV RA 234 dec +80; LM 5.80; teff 0.166; QUA: five; SPO: one  (15% clouds)
11:35-11:47 UT; FOV RA 234 dec +80; LM 5.00; teff 0.200; QUA: three; DLM: one  (15% clouds)

Clear skies,

Pierre Martin
Ottawa, Ontario