Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Take a cold meteor shower!


Friday morning before sunrise gives meteor observers a chance to see a relatively unknown shower, the Quadrantids. These seems to originate from near the tip of the handle of the Big Dipper which rises around midnight. Look after 1 am in the northeast. The rate for these may reach 120 per hour. However, this number includes the dimmer meteors and the ones that you don't catch streaking behind you. A better number would be 1/3 that top value, placing them around 40 per hour. Nevertheless, this is one of the year's best meteor events.

If you haven't become frozen by 5:00 a.m., you'll also see the crescent moon and brilliant Venus rising in the southeast. This promises to be an inspiring sight to start your day!

Such is the view from Earth...

No comments: