A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall Wish upon Falling stars Tonight ~ Great Views of 2008

Jan 4,2008 between the hours of midnight and 7 depending on the area where you live and if it is a clear night, you'll see meteor showers not to be seen like this again until 2016.


According to the International Meteor Organization, maximum activity this year is expected on Friday 1:40 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

For those in the eastern United States, the radiant will be about one-quarter of the way up in the east-northeast sky. The farther to the north and east you go, the higher in the sky the radiant will be. To the south and west the radiant will be lower and the meteors will be fewer.

From Western Europe, the radiant will soar high in the east as the peak arrives just as morning twilight intervenes.

Quadrantid meteors are described as bright and bluish with long silvery trains. Some years produce a mere handful, but for favorably placed observers, this could be a shower to remember; at greatest activity, Quadrantid rates will likely range from 30 to 60 per hour for eastern parts of the U.S. and Canada, to 60 to 120 per hour for Western Europe.

Across central and western parts of North America, the shower's sharp peak will have already passed and meteor activity will be rapidly diminishing by the time the radiant has a chance to get very high in the northeastern sky. Nonetheless, hourly rates of perhaps 15 to 30 may still be seen.

The moon will be a waning crescent, not rising until after 4 a.m. and will add very little light to the

Adolphe Quetelet of Brussels Observatory discovered the shower in the 1830's, and shortly afterward it was noted by several other astronomers in Europe and America.[font:Comic Sans MS]

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Unlike the recent Geminid meteors the Quadrantid meteors will not be visible during evening hours. Like most meteor showers prime viewing time will be in the early morning hours before dawn.

The brief peak of the Quadrantid shower may also work against a great show in the Americas this year. Northern Europeans may have the best seat since the peak will be centered around 12:30am GMT (0030Z) 4 January. As with any meteor shower there will be some meteors in the few days before and after the peak.

[size:14pt][b][color:#3333FF]Here are schedules of viewing times for a couple of latitudes.

For the Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta strip:
11:00pm - you might start seeing a few earthgrazers*
3:00am - the hourly rate should reach half it's maximum
5:30am - the brightening dawn will start to wash out the fainter meteors after this time

For the Cayman Islands, Puerto Rico strip:
1:30am - you might start seeing a few earthgrazers*
4:30am - the hourly rate should reach half it's maximum
5:40am - the brightening dawn will start to wash out the fainter meteors after this time

*Earthgrazers are the earliest meteors visible during a night of a meteor shower. The area the meteors are coming from is just starting to rise above the horizon. Any meteors that plunge downward into the atmosphere won't be seen then. At that time only meteors that skim the atmosphere will be visible -- "


I am going to try see it , I'm setting my alarm for two differnt time to get up before 4 [/color] [/b][/size]

December 4th ?????

YEp Carol In just a few hours!!!!!!!!

Okay I edited it Carol Thanks!!!!! I guess I wanted Christmas to come around again!

Bump UP for those interested,,,,,




Tomorrow Jan 4 after 7 am this thread will be nil and void UNLESS someone here is lucky enough to get pictures of it!

^^

It is cloudy here and starting to drizzle tonight. I don't think I will set an alarm.

awwwwwwwwwwwww Tina! I'm going outside in a few minutes I have to take Emmy out anyway I HOPE it is a clear sky tonight

Going to check & see if it is clear here-----BRB

Darn !!!
it is all cloudy--not even a star showing

I hope somebody gets to see it !!!

I went out and there are a few clouds but I sure see stars also,,

this is a picture I just took,, I wrote blue Because there is a faint blue dot,, I could see it just looking up at the sky,, I can see the big dipper Clearly but it didn't come out Maybe I wasn't aiming up at the sky right . But I did get a constellation I'm not sure what it is tho maybe the little dipper? .But I doubt it . cuz I believe it's much lower than where the little dipper should be,, and where I saw this the Big dipper was much higher and more south than what is in this pic

WOW< Diane, Awesome !!

Thanks Carol I just took some more But I'll load them tomorrow,,

I Couldn't wait until tomorrow,, on the news they said people were reporting seeing them in the rural areas,, so I went back out and took some more pictures, I may have captured one,, OR two,, I could see faint falling of starts,, all in the the same sky area, what do you think??

well you caught something that is for sure !!! and wonderful pictures they are too !!

Thanks Cindy! I set the alarm for 4 and went out side I took pic's but don't think I got anything most the time I can't tell until I upload pictures, and lighten them to see,, and again more pictures @ around 5:30 -6 I'll have to wait until I get off work to upload and see ..

Good Morning, Diane

This AM I got up with DH at 4am the sky was clear 7 bright with a bunch of great stars BUT no falling ones--no meteor showers :(
all cloudy again now

awwwwwwwwww wellll at least Carol you got to see a clear twinkling sky!

Even if you had to get up at 4 am to see it!

the getting up was not a problem--DH gets up 1 hr earlier as he is on 10 hr days right now---andf I figure if he can go to work I can pack his lunch--BUT right now I am sleeping in trying to recover. This AM the potty was calling me though, so I took the opportunint to look out.

Nice pics...wish I would of read this last night....I missed it.

Me too, Tamara, as I was up most of the night anyway!
But Don was using my computer last night so I didn't see this post until now...

these are the only other two good ones that are clear enough to see,, I have a lot more But are very faint!

Great Pictures, Diane--thanks for sharing