Quadrantids - 2014

[JoeSR]

Hello all,

The quadrantids meteor shower will be nearing its peak on the morning of the 4th. I am located in Melbourne and have read that this meteor shower is primarily a northern hemisphere event and is almost none existent in the south. Can someone please confirm?

One of my best memories was of observing a meteor shower, about ten years ago, in what most likely was October. It had a long lasting peak and became very active one hour before dawn. I would love to experience that again. Is there any chance of that with this meteor slower?

[Blue Skies]

Yes, that right - you're very unlikely to see anything from the southern hemisphere. If I recall correctly, the radiant for the Quadrantids doesn't rise until after sunrise as seen from our southern Australian location, so it basically happens in daylight for us.

The October shower you saw was probably the Orionids. They are one side of the stream we cross from Comet Halley. The other side of that stream is the Eta Aquarids in early May, which are considered one of the premier showers for the southern hemisphere. Looking at the moon phase for the first week of May this year its a first quarter moon, so it will be gone by midnight so good dark skies for meteor watching, although Venus will be there in the east right where you're looking which can be a pain in the retina over a long period of time!

[gaa_ian]

For those of us closer to the equator, this could be worth a go in the morning !
The attached map is for Cairns so for Gove it is slightly higher (about 2deg above the horizon)
Could be interesting with meteors rising up from the horizon :eyepop:

[gaa_ian]

Well, I did end up going out for a look at the Quadrantids this morning with a fellow club member. I was pleasantly surprised to see 7 of them either rising up from the horizon or skimming it in the later part of the hour between 4 and 5 am. 2 of them were brief and faint. However the remaining 5 were quite spectacular, with rising up from the horizon and lasting several seconds.
A few of the ones closer to the horizon seemed to flare into visibility and disappear with a flash !
The Quadranids are quite easy to pick being relatively slow moving compared to other showers. Certainly well worth the effort of getting up for from our northerly location. As luck would have it the clouds rolled in as the sky started to brighten, so we got the best of it.