Quadrantids Meteor Shower (peak Jan 4th) the one to watch...

The Quadrantids Meteor Shower peaks during the small hours of Wednesday January 4th 2012 for us. The radiant is actually an obselete constellation known as Quadrans Muralis, last used in 1922. The part of the sky once occupied by this constellation is now between Bootes and Ursa Major (Bootes essentially 'swallowed' up Quadrans Muralis).

The radiant is around the handle of The Plough and lasts for only a short while in terms of days. Expected peak this year is anything from 60 to 120 per hour. Keep an eye out once darkness falls as I myself have seen bursts lasting minutes at a time in previous years, so it is worth having a look Tuesday night. The only problem this year is a waxing Gibbous Moon for the first half of the night.


Other highlights for January can be read from Neill McKeown's January 2012 Sky Guide here .

Seanie.

clouded out up herre Seanie.

On Tuesday night it was quite clear here Jonathan. I spotted a few early on in the night (but missed an apparent bollide seen clear across Ireland according to another Irish source) and then later on between 6:30am and 7:10am. They were bright, fast and short meteors, all radiating from the Plough area of the sky. It was more murky in the predawn Wednesday morning sky so only a few were seen during the time shown but they were c. Magnitude +2 or brighter (one was around mag -1 I'd say). A few calls made to me from members of the public saw them and wondered what was going on!

Seanie.

Managed to get 69 Quadrantids on the camera, Brightness Max Mag -1.4 to Min Mag 3.2.

One of my new year's resolutions is to sort and compile the videos and finally get the camera off the tripod and into a housing on the wall outside! :y32b4:

Graham

Nice going Graham, if you get a chance to post any videos, do let us know (or simply post them here!).

Seanie.