WATCHING THE QUADRANTID METEOR SHOWERS FROM WIMBERLEY

Happy New Year! The fine new year for 2011 will be rung in with a sky show with no carbon footprint, spectacular, and far, far away. Viewers in the Central Texas Hill Country may have a relatively rare opportunity to view it from a comfortable position on Earth.

The Quadrantids are an above average shower, with up to 40 meteors per hour at their peak. The shower usually peaks on January 3rd and 4th, but start watching from January 1st through the 5th and you usually won't be disappointed.As with most meteor showers, your best viewing opportunity will be from a dark location after midnight. Look for meteors radiating from the constellation Bootes.

Saturday morning, January 3, 2009, is the peak date for the Quadrantids, usually an unpredictable meteor shower. Observers in western North America have the good fortune to view as many as a couple of meteor sightings each minute, given clear, dark skies in the pre-dawn hours.

Views of meteor showers are often obstructed by moonlight, but the moon will not be a factor in this show. Although the Quadrantids shower has a brief, intense maximum lasting only a few hours, it can be one of the most intense annual celestial displays.

Joe Rao (Space.com) describes factors that make this shower difficult to view on a regular basis:

"* Peak intensity is exceedingly sharp: meteor rates exceed one-half of their highest value for only about 8 hours (compared to two days for the August Perseids). This means that the stream of particles that produce this shower is a narrow one – apparently derived within the last 500 years from a small comet.
* As viewed from mid-northern latitudes, we have to get up before dawn to see the Quadrantids at their best. This is because the radiant – that part of the sky from where the meteors to emanate – is down low on the northern horizon until about midnight, rising slowly higher as the night progresses. The growing light of dawn ends meteor observing usually by around 7 a.m. So, if the "Quads" are to be seen at all, some part of that 8-hour active period must fall between 2 and 7 a.m.
* In one out of every three years, bright moonlight spoils the view.
* Over northern latitudes, early January often sees inclement/unsettled weather."

However, this year the prospects for amazing views are excellent. The meteors are described as "...bright and bluish with long silvery trains."

Quadrantids usually begin around December 28th, ending January 7th. However, they are barely detectable on the dates before and after the maximum, which lasts only for a few hours.

Even with the possibility of intermittent clouds, Quadrantids viewing this year may be excellent...and the mild temperatures will make the experience much more fun than the usual dead-of-winter early morning outing.

» Meteor Shower Guide from EarthSky

» Quadrantid Meteor Shower at EarthSky