The Quadrantids

I caught a lucky break this morning. I woke up a little after 6 am and decided to take a short soak in the hot tub. It was cold out, but not too cold (perhaps in the upper teens). One of the first things I noticed upon going outside was how calm it was. We've had some pretty high winds in the last few days, but there was no wind this morning, and the sky was clear.

The first inkling of sunrise was starting to appear in the east as lowered myself into the water. The stars were out, but due to the proximity of our neighbor's house, we can only see a small portion of the sky from the hot tub.

I was soaking only a few seconds when I observed the first meteor. It appeared from an area behind the Big Dipper, was very bright, and moved across the sky in a northwesterly direction. We occasionally see stray meteors when we do early morning soaks, so I didn't think much of it.

But a couple minutes later, I saw another one, and then another. I ended up seeing ten meteors over the period of about 20 minutes or so, six of which were very bright. All of them seemed to emanate from behind the Big Dipper. I'm certain I would have seen more had I been able to see a bigger portion of the sky.

The sky was getting brighter, so I ended my soak and went inside to check the internets. It turns out that the name of the meteor shower is The Quadrantids:

The Quadrantid meteor shower is one of the strongest meteor showers of the year, but observers can be disappointed if conditions are not just right. The point from where the Quadrantid meteors appear to radiate is located within the extinct constellation Quadrans Muralis. On modern star charts, this radiant is located where the constellations Hercules, Boötes, and Draco meet in the sky. The shower can appear almost nonexistent until about 11 p.m. Unfortunately, the radiant does not attain a very high altitude for most Northern Hemisphere observers before morning twilight puts an end to the show. The best observations are actually possible from countries with high northern latitudes, such as Canada, Finland, Sweden, and Norway. The display is virtually nonexistent for observers in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Quadrantids generally begin on December 28 and end on January 7, with maximum generally occurring during the morning hours of January 3/4. The Quadrantids are barely detectable on the beginning and ending dates, but observers in the Northern Hemisphere can see from 10 to around 60 meteors per hour at maximum. The maximum only lasts for a few hours.

I've never had much interest in observing wintertime meteor showers, mostly due to the fact that it is freaking cold outside this time of year. But a hot tub really seems to help in that regard. Maybe I'll take another shot at The Quadrantids tomorrow morning.