[This page will be updated during the event, stay tuned.]
Thursday - 8:51 p.m. EST - Live video available from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., click here.
Thursday - 3:45 p.m. EST - Beginning tonight around 11 p.m. EST, there is a chance of seeing a few Quadrantid meteors. Because of the short duration of the shower -- only several hours -- the rates will not be good, but a Quadrantid straggler should occasionally cross the sky.
Wednesday - 5:15 p.m. EST - Unfortunately the skies in Huntsville, Ala., where NASA has cameras setup to observe the night sky, are predicted to be cloudy over the Marshall Space Flight Center. "We're hoping for some breaks in the clouds," NASA says.
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A little-known meteor shower named after an extinct constellation, the Quadrantids will present an excellent chance to start the year off with some late-night meteor watching. Peaking in the wee morning hours of Thursday, the Quadrantids have a maximum rate of about 80 per hour, varying between 60-200. Unfortunately, light from a waning gibbous moon will wash out many Quadrantids, cutting down on the number of meteors seen by skywatchers. The peak of the meteor shower only last a few hours.
Like the Geminids in December, the Quadrantids originate from an asteroid, called 2003 EH1. Studies suggest that this body could very well be a piece of a comet which broke apart several centuries ago, and that the meteors you see are the small debris from this fragmentation. After hundreds of years orbiting the sun, they will enter our atmosphere at 90,000 miles per hour, burning up 50 miles above Earth's surface -- a fiery end to a long journey.
NASA will have a live Ustream video feed of the Quadrantid shower available on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night. The camera is mounted at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The system is light activated and turns on at dusk. The video link will be posted on this page once it is active.
The Quadrantids derive their name from the constellation of Quadrans Muralis (mural quadrant), which was created by the French astronomer Jerome Lalande in 1795. Located between the constellations of Bootes and Draco, Quadrans represents an early astronomical instrument used to observe and plot stars. Even though astronomers no longer recognize the constellation, it was around long enough to give the meteor shower its name. The shower was first seen in 1825.
Schedule of events (all times EST for Washington, D.C. area)
- Wednesday - 4:58 p.m. - Sunset.
- Wednesday - 6:00-6:08 p.m. - International Space Station pass.
- Wednesday - 10:25 p.m. - Moonrise.
- Thursday - 12:00 a.m. - Meteor rates should start increasing.
- Thursday - 3:00 a.m.-dawn - Peak of meteor shower.
- Thursday - 7:27 a.m. - Sunrise.
- Thursday - 7:30-7:35 a.m. - International Space Station pass.
- Thursday - 4:59 p.m. - Sunset.
- Thursday - 5:09-5:19 p.m. - International Space Station pass.
- Thursday - 11:00 p.m. - There is a chance of seeing a few Quadrantid meteors throughout the night, into Friday morning. Because of the short duration of the shower -- only several hours -- the rates will not be good, but a Quadrantid straggler should occasionally cross the sky.
- Thursday - 11:28 p.m. - Moonrise.
- Friday - 7:27 a.m. - Sunrise.
[This page will be updated during the event, stay tuned.]
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