Quadrantid meteor shower January 2013
Although the Quadrantid meteor shower is known as a “strong” shower, it can be very variable from year to year and its peak is very short, so it’s a difficult one to catch. I had calculated that the peak on the West Coast would be at 5:30 am, so I went out at 3 am to see if it was underway. Under strong moonlight he shower did seem modest at best, but I did catch a nice big red and green fireball at 5:06 am.
Sometimes it’s easier to see meteors (and satellites) when viewing the images in a time-lapse video:
Overall I did better than the prior year, when I also caught one large fireball meteor under moonlight (and light pollution), but no discernible smaller ones:
As I look back on this post in late 2019, the 2020 Quadrantids on the night of January 3/4 look like they’ll peak under great viewing conditions, without interference of the moon after 1 am. The peak is January 4 at 12:20 a.m. PST (08:20 UTC), but the radiant point in the constellation Bootes rises to a more useful elevation in the sky around 2 am. It’s hard to predict when the apparent peak will be, on the West Coast probably in the 1:30-3:30 am time frame and on until dawn.
Google+: Reshared 30 times
Comments
beautiful
Awesome!
Nicely captured +Jeff Sullivan
=^.^=
Did you look for the meteor shower +Maximilian Laue? One of the things I've been paying attention to lately is trying to figure out at what moon phase the distinct blue sky tone shows is noticeable in the night sky. I noticed while looking for meteors yesterday morning that I could see a distinct "blue sky" tone in the sky around the stars, even though the moon was appeared to be only about 60% full. Even with that little moon, I had to change my exposure about two stops darker than what I would use for a dark night sky with no moon, so I'm sure that I missed many meteors because the moon was simply too bright to let them all be seen. Fortunately there were enough bright ones to make heading out in the cold (36 degrees or so) worthwhile.
No, as I was in DV it was clear for the blue hour, but around 11pm it always became overcast. I wish it was in the high 30s +Jeff Sullivan for me was high teen's and low 20s at best
Wow, wow, wow!
So beautiful!
Thanks for that early morning trek so you could share this.
Thank you.
Wow, you can actually see it ~~~ you always do great work for us to admire ~~~
It's so magical…
Yes, he never fails to amaze us!! And Jeff, thanks for putting in those insane hours to bring us photos of beauty that always keep us awestruck ~~~
好漂亮
nice work
beautifull starlight….
Here's a little merangue to top that off +Peter Clarke:
https://plus.google.com/116318044389289937577/posts/SjoP2t5mEyj
+Lori Hibbett has an even better dessert-like landscape shot she'll probably post in the next few days.
Jeff, thanks for sharing that with us ~~ I thought it was magnificent ~~
My pleasure +Madge Bienstock, thanks.
ภาพจริงหรอค่ะ