Brief But Intense Meteor Shower On January 4th 48
PolygamousRanchKid writes with this quote:
"Sky watchers are in for their first treat of 2012, as the short but intense Quadrantid meteor shower will light up the northern sky in the early morning of Jan. 4. According to a NASA web page on the Quadrantids, there could be as many as 200 meteors per hour, though the average rate is about 60 to 100 per hour. ... The Quadrantids have not been studied as extensively as some of the better-known meteor showers like the Perseids and Geminids, possibly because it's best visible in far northern latitudes, where its appearance coincides with cold weather."
Viewing locations and times to view the Quadrantid (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.spacedex.com/quadrantids/ [spacedex.com]
Re:Plus it coincides with a lot of hangovers... (Score:5, Informative)
Apparently it'll be about 7am GMT, so it'll still be dark for an hour or so up here.
If it's cloudy where you are, then try listening for some meteor scatter [wikipedia.org] propagation. Get an FM broadcast radio, and tune for a distant station, well out of range. If a meteor burns up in the right part of the sky, the trail of ionised gas will reflect radio waves for a few seconds and you'll hear a "ping" of signal.
If you have a proper FM tuner and a directional aerial, try aiming it more-or-less at the direction the meteors are coming from.
Re:Early morning (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Early morning (Score:4, Informative)
"Local Time" means exactly what it says. It is local to the reader/listener. You celebrated new years at midnight local time. The spot on the earth that will be pointing in the right direction to see the meteors will be located at a position where it is currently 3am. The direction will not change, but the earth will continue to rotate under it. It will continue to be 3am in that position (give or take a second or two to account for the earth's orbit) for the entire night.
Don't get mad at NASA because you don't understand time zones and their usage.