Quadrantid Meteor Shower - Peaking 3rd January

The following detail on meteor shower activity over the next few nights/mornings is US centric but should still apply to our skies, just adjust the times accordingly. I think it is worth posting here as we are due some clear skies (if Met Eireann are accurate) and it would be a shame to miss them due to lack of information.

"The Quadrantid meteor shower will put on its best show in the early morning of January 3. Observers who escape city lights and clouds can expect to see 100 meteors per hour.

Quadrantid meteors strike Earth's upper atmosphere at 90,000 mph. Dust-size particles are incinerated, which creates a column of incandescent gas we see as a meteor.

The shower's radiant — the point from which all its meteors seem to originate — lies in the constellation Boötes the Herdsman. This region once belonged to the now extinct constellation Quadrans Muralis the Mural Quadrant, hence the shower’s name.

Sharp-eyed observers can see meteors from this shower between January 1 and 5, but the peak on the 3rd is sharp — the numbers are low even a day away from maximum. This year, the Moon will pose no problem, setting before 9 p.m. local time."

The following detail on meteor shower activity over the next few nights/mornings is US centric but should still apply to our skies, just adjust the times accordingly. I think it is worth posting here as we are due some clear skies (if Met Eireann are accurate) and it would be a shame to miss them due to lack of information.

Absolutely and let's hope the skies do clear. Here's a link to the B.A.A. meteor section with information relevant to this side of the Atlantic. www.britastro.org/meteor/

Take whatever opportunities arise to observe the Quadrantids because three to four hundred years on, it seems the stream will miss the Earth for another thousand years or more!!

Gordon

"The Quadrantid meteor shower will put on its best show in the early morning of January 3. Observers who escape city lights and clouds can expect to see 100 meteors per hour."

If its US centric, that makes it around now (21:00hrs) for us, and its raining outside here in Tullamore!

Seanie.

Darn, it's raining here too

Thats info is wrong. It peaks 2moro evening between 6-7pm. The US is to be the worst plave to see it, Japan is the best place to view this shower

to bad, i think its in the direction of the nearby city here Have never been frustrated about lightpolution before, but after starting with this hobby iv become avare. And ive noticed its real bad in direction were the main city is.

Am i right that lightpoluting is kind of light pink color?