Quadrantid Meteor Shower
First of all, this blog is inspired by a favorite astronomy site of mine, EarthSky.org. This site is downright terrific and has graciously allowed me to use many skymaps in previous blogs as well as this one. This site is an absolutely fantastic source for all sorts of information about the field of science in general. I suggest and plead you to browse the site.
Unlike many of the recent meteor showers, a bright moon should not be a problem for this meteor shower. The waxing gibbous moon should set a few hours before sunrise Wednesday, Jan. 4, and this is the time to get out to see this meteor shower.
The peak intensity is exceedingly sharp: the meteor rates exceed one-half of their highest value for only about eight hours (compared to two days for the August Perseids). With the moon being out for some of this peak, we should see about two hours when you should be able to easily see a "shooting star" after the moon sets. The parent body of the Quadrantids was recently tentatively identified (in a paper by Peter Jenniskens) as the minor planet 2003 EH1, which in turn may be the same object as the comet C/1490 Y1 which was observed by Chinese, Japanese and Korean astronomers 500 years ago.
According to Deborah Byrd from Earthsky.org, "You might see 100 or even 200 Quadrantid meteors in an hour. Woot?! Woot indeed for us in North America in 2012. The predicted peak of this shower is 7 to 8 UTC. That’s 3 to 4 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (2 to 3 a.m. Central Standard Time) – perfect timing for viewing in Eastern or Central time zones in the U.S."
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