Blue fireball meteor display to beam across sky tonight with up to 120 shooting stars an hour – 4 tips for the best view
THE Quadrantid meteor shower is set to peak tonight, giving stargazers a chance to see up to 120 shooting stars per hour.
The annual display is known for its bright fireball meteors, which can appear blue.
While the Quadrantid meteor shower is active from 26 December to January 16, it will produce the most shooting stars this weekend.
The highest number of meteors will pass Earth in the early hours of 4 January.
The best time to view them is from late night on 3 January to dawn on 4 January.
“While the peak only lasts a few hours, you can still see meteors before and after this period,” Shyam Balaji, researcher in astroparticle physics and cosmology at King’s College London, said.
“Though the number of visible meteors will be significantly lower.”
Unlike other meteor showers that tend to peak over about two days, the peak period of the Quadrantids is only a few hours long.
Viewing conditions will be particularly favourable tonight, with the moon in a waning crescent.
This means the lunar disk is only about 47 per cent illuminated, and won’t cast too much glare into the sky.
For the best view, set up your watch-post somewhere away from light pollution – be that a city skyline or even just a lamppost.
Be patient and let your eyes adjust to the dark – this can take up to 20 minutes if you want to catch the fine light trails that follow meteors.
Of course, that means you will have to put your phone down.
You won’t need to bother with binoculars, as these will only limit the portion of the sky you can see.
Although you can try and position your seat to face roughly 45 degrees away from the radiant – the place in the sky where the meteors originate from.
The Quadrantids appear to originate from the constellation Boötes, near the Big Dipper.
To find Boötes, first look for the Big Dipper, also known as the Saucepan or Plough.
Follow the curve of the Saucepan’s ‘handle’ until you find a bright reddish star – this is Arcturus.
Arcturus is the bottom point of the Boötes constellation, and can be seen as the lower tip of the kite or the ice cream cone.
If you can’t find Boötes in the sky, try using a stargazing app like Night Sky.
Why can meteors be multi-coloured?
Meteors can turn all sorts of colours when they burn up, depending on what they're made up of.
The chemical composition of a meteor can be the difference in it shining blue-green, orange-yellow, and even violet.
If a meteor burns a bright green or blue, it is because it has magnesium inside it.
If it burns an orange-yellow, it’s composition features sodium.
If it’s just yellow, it’s made up of iron.
If it shines violet, it has a lot of calcium inside it.
If it’s red, this is most likely the result of glowing air plasma, or atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen.