Quadrantids meteor shower tonight!

[elleng]

Midnight Sunday to Dawn Monday.

http://earthsky.org/tonight/quadrantid-meteor-shower-before-dawn-in-early-january?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=7a80087e7f-EarthSky_News&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-7a80087e7f-394533365

The annual Quadrantid shower is nominally active during the first week of January, and is best seen from northerly latitudes. However, peak activity lasts less than a day. So you need to be on the night side of Earth when this shower exhibits its relatively short peak to witness the Quadrantids. In 2016, we don’t expect the waning crescent moon to seriously obtrude on this meteor shower. So if you’re game, try watching between midnight and dawn on January 4.

This meteor shower favors the Northern Hemisphere. That’s because its radiant point – the point in the sky from which the meteors appear to radiate – is far to the north on the sky’s dome.

The Quadrantid meteor shower is capable of matching the meteor rates of the better known August Perseid and December Geminid showers. It has been known to produce up to 50-100 or more meteors per hour in a dark sky.

So why isn’t the Quadrantid shower as celebrated as the Perseid and Geminid showers? It’s because the Quadrantid shower has a narrow peak that lasts for only a few hours. If you miss the peak – which is easy to do – you won’t see many meteors.

http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/everything-you-need-to-know-quadrantid-meteor-shower

[longship]

1. Too damned cold in rural Michigan.

The low tomorrow night will be below 10F. Plus, it's fscking cloudy tonight, as usual. And we're getting snow coming off the lake. (Yup! That's THE lake in these parts, three hundred miles long, named Michigan.)

Winter sucks here sometimes.

My telescope is put up until warm weather returns.

[Mike__M]

2. Astronomy...

the one reason to not live in the Pacific Northwest.

[elleng]

3. :-(

[Hortensis]

4. Thanks, Elleng. Unfortunately, it's horizon-to-horizon clouds

in our part of Florida, but I'll be sure and head out to the patio later to see if they've cleared a bit.