Meteor ShowerSunday Morning

The Quadrantid (pronounced KWA-dran-tid) meteors provides one of the most intense annual meteor displays (particualrly if you live in the Northern Hemisphere), with a brief, sharp maximum lasting but a few hours.

The shower was discovered by Adolphe Quetelet of Brussels Observatory in the 1830's, and shortly afterward it was noted by several other astronomers in both Europe and America.

The meteors are named after the obsolete constellation Quadrans Muralis the Mural or Wall Quadrant (an astronomical instrument), depicted in some 19th-century star atlases roughly midway between the end of the handle of the Big Dipper and the quadrilateral of stars marking the head of the constellation Draco. (The International Astronomical Union phased out Quadrans Muralis in 1922.)

Hard to say but pretty good if you can see them. I was out on New Years Eve/morning ie at midnight - on the catwalk and you could see quite a few meteors to just North of East in the sky. They may have been sporadics but some were quadrantids.

Although the Quadrantids are a major shower, they are seldom observed. One reason is weather. The shower peaks in early January when northern winter is in full swing. Storms and cold tend to keep observers inside. Last year, NASA scientists went to extremes to gain a good view; they flew an airplane above the clouds and over the Arctic Circle where they saw many Quadrantids.

The shower doesn't last long, a few hours at most. Even dedicated meteor watchers are likely to miss such a sharp peak. In his classic book Meteor Astronomy, Prof. A.C.B. Lovell lamented that "useful counts of the Quadrantid rate were made in [only] 24 Januaries out of a possible 68 between 1860 and 1927. ... The maximum rate appears to have occurred in 1932 (80 per hour) although the results are influenced by unfavorable weather."

The source of the Quadrantid meteor shower was unknown until Dec. 2003 when Peter Jenniskens of the NASA Ames Research Center found evidence that Quadrantid meteoroids come from 2003 EH1, an "asteroid" that is probably a piece of a comet that broke apart some 500 years ago. Earth intersects the orbit of 2003 EH1 at a perpendicular angle, which means we quickly move through any debris. That's why the shower is so brief.

But don't despair - for those of us down under it may be possible to spot some long-pathed meteors around the peak of the shower on the 4th.

Something to look forward to:

The shower best suited for viewing in the Southern Hemisphere is the Eta Carinids which is active from 14th to 27th. The meteors are typically faint, with hourly rates of only 2 or 3 at the shower’s peak around the 21st. The shower is centred near the faint star Eta Carina, which is one of the most massive stars in our Galaxy and found near the Southern Cross. This central point is high in the south from midnight to dawn which is the best time for meteor observing.


check out spaceweather.com for more info and charts