Last quarter next Monday (December 31), means the Moon will be a waning crescent for the Quadrantid maximum, due next Friday morning, January 4, around 06:40 UT. The Moon will rise only around or after 05h UT for most of Britain then. The shower peak is typically short and sharp, so this maximum timing may be a little too late for the UK if it proves accurate, with morning astronomical twilight beginning between roughly 06:00-06:20 UT for sites here. However, rates should still be worth seeing as they rise towards the maximum overnight on January 3-4. Although the shower's radiant is circumpolar in northern Boötes, at 15h20m RA, +49 degrees Dec, it is very low during the first half of the night, and is only properly observable after midnight. The maximum Zenithal Hourly Rate (ZHR) for the Quadrantids has been around 120 in recent times, though it does vary somewhat from year to year, sometimes as low as 60, at others up to 200, and has occasionally persisted for a couple of hours (as most recently in 1998). The peak time may alter slightly too, and additional maxima, perhaps of predominantly fainter meteors, may precede and follow the main event by half a day or so. Quadrantids are of medium-speed, often reasonably bright near the visual maximum. Much lower, often negligible, numbers of them should be present from about January 1-5.
For more information on these and others of January's showers, see:
http://www.popastro.com/sections/meteor ... an2008.htm elsewhere on the SPA website. Good luck!
Alastair McBeath,
Meteor Director, Society for Popular Astronomy.
E-mail: <meteor@popastro.com> (messages under 150 kB in size only, please)
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
