This bright display is a seen mainly in the Northern Hemisphere at the beginning of the new year (January 1-6). The Quadrantids are streams of debris shed by the asteroid 2003 EH1, which may actually be the remains of a long-dead comet.
The Quadrantids have a maximum rate of about 80 meteors per hour, varying between 60 and 200. The peak for this shower is quite narrow, however, lasting just a few hours.
Locate this meteor shower by finding the Big Dipper (Ursa Major) then looking further north (roughly "up" if the Big Dipper were holding liquid). The constellation Draco ("Dragon") has a "head" of four bright stars that look a little bit like the four stars that make up the cup end of the Big Dipper. Look for meteors between the end of the Big Dipper's handle and Draco's head.
The night is cold and moonless. Stars twinkle in frosty stillness. My breath rises from my lips as a thick fog, circling my head before it dissipates into the silence.
I am out late in the dark, standing on a butte more than a mile from the nearest street light, because there's a chance of showers. Meteor showers.
Falling stars, or meteors, are not uncommon. You can catch site of one almost any night of the year, and some are even large enough and bright enough to break the light of day. But showers of meteors -- when long streaks of flame arc across the heavens not once, but many times -- are another matter. Most of these are caused by clouds of dust left in the path of passing comets and they come round again like the seasons, year after year.
Continued in Rural Delivery
