It's Full of Stars

Quadrantids Will Create Brief, Beautiful Show on Jan. 3-4

Due to the overwhelming interest in tonight’s Quadrantid meteor shower, Marshall Space Flight Center is currently setting up a live all-sky camera feed of the skies over Huntsville, Ala. The weather looks very clear for tonight in Huntsville, and the feed will go live late this afternoon. Please check back on this page to see the embedded Ustream feed. There will not be an associated live Web chat, but we urge you to share your meteor-watching experiences in the comments section at the bottom of this page, or on Marshall’s Facebook page and Twitter feed. Happy viewing!

The 2012 Quadrantids, a little-known meteor shower named after an extinct constellation, will present an excellent chance for hardy souls to start the year off with some late-night meteor watching. 

Peaking in the wee morning hours of Jan. 4, the Quadrantids have a maximum rate of about 100 per hour, varying between 60-200. The waxing gibbous moon will set around 3 a.m. local time, leaving about two hours of excellent meteor observing before dawn. It’s a good thing, too, because unlike the more famous Perseid and Geminid meteor showers, the Quadrantids only last a few hours — it’s the morning of Jan. 4, or nothing.

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