Astronomers say this year’s Quadrantid meteors could be unusually good. A late moonrise could make it possible to see 30 to 60 meteors per hour in the United States and twice that many in Europe.
When to look: the morning of January 4, after midnight blog time (1 a.m. U.S. Eastern time, or before dawn in Europe) — not ideal for a school night, alas. Let us know if you look and what you see.
School night? What? The next “school night” is on Sunday! Unless I have a super-long break… FRIDAY IS NOT A SCHOOL NIGHT, I HOPE…
The meteor shower is Friday morning. Some MBers are already back in school.
Really? I don’t have school, but I do need more sleep.
No way is my mum going to let me wake up that early.
AWESOME!!!! Iøll look. If the LIGHT POLLUTION ISNØT TOO BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2- Really? Wow, I pity them. NO SCHOOL TILL MONDAY FOR ME!
Kiki (6): I went back on Wednesday. Yes, we’re quite lucky over here. ::grumble::
That’s 2 am my time, I doubt I’ll be able to stay up and see it. I’ll see what I can do, though.
Crap, light polution is bad around here, but hopefully… I got up for a meteor shower and an eclips in the fall and didn’t get to see either (at 3, and 4…)
I shall stay up anyway, though, although as I don’t have a good computer (I am working on the laptop. I hate windows so much. It sucks, to put it bluntly.) I won’t have asmany yummy distractions. Oh well.
Hmm… it’s too bad the best meteors are viewed just aove the horizon, which I can’t see because of the trees. Sigh.
Ooh! Quadrantid meteors! How exciting!
Mom, what are Quadrantid meteors?
Wait- so these are tonight, generally speaking?
Yes, peaking around 1:40 a.m. U.S. Eastern Standard time.
As for why they’re called the Quadrantids, here’s what spaceweather.com says:
Would you suggest that a Pittsburgh resident stay up all night to see the meteor shower? Temperature is currently 16 degrees. I can’t decide… ::ponders::
I saw the Geminids back in mid-December with my brothers. Very cool.
I tried to look for them, but there is way too much light pollution. It’s kind of sad that there’s a ton of light pollution across the street from a forest preserve.
I also stayed up and looked, but there is light pollution from the city and I was wearing my glasses, which are a power bhind my contacts, so if there were a few veryvery small dim ones I missed them.
I did however see an excelent brighter one — I am convinced it was not an airplane, it was going much to fast and it flickered red and white but not at a regular pace, and not blinking. It was very pretty, it’s too bad I hadn’t my contacts in so it was just a bright light going across the sky closeish to the horizon.
I’m glad you saw something, Jadestone!
I decided not to stay up, because I had a Chemistry test today and it got down to somewhere around 10 degrees last night, with windchill of -10. I probably wouldn’t have been able to see it anyway, but I wish I could have. I’ve seen one shooting star in my life, while I was sledding with my dad on the way home from a piano lesson.
Did you see anything, Robert?
No, alas. I have to get to bed at a reasonable hour on work nights. I’ll let you all know about any meteor showers I hear about, though. A good one is well worth seeing.
i didnt see it. i was asleep.
I didn’t see this one, but my family lives about 40 min. from a national beach. There’s something called a “stargazer’s pass” available that lets you get into the parks after closing. This was too cold and at the wrong time, but I have great memories of laying on the beach in a sleeping bag waiting for the stars to come out. You should all be able to escape to a place w/o too much light pollution.
Completely missed it.
like i already said, so did i. But didn’t ANYONE see it? i want to hear about it.
21-Jadestone Said she did… faintly
Alas, I might have looked had it not been so cold, and if I had not just returned from my grandmother’s house the previous evening. I love meteor showers, but there is more and more light pollution around here, which is especially bad…
Red-tailed HAWK
22- I hate light pollution. I was at a Scriptwriter’s Camp in November, and I was showing constellations to the other kids. Some were from Queens (NYC) and they said
“I’ve never seen this many stars in my life.”