Natural History Wanderings

First Meteor Shower of 2011

The Quadrantid Meteor Shower has a lot of meteors (60 to 120 or more meteors visible per hour under ideal conditions for  2 to 4 hour period) and there will be no moonlight as it is the New Moon.  The negative is it is on the early side especially for the west coast (8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, 5 p.m. Pacific, on the evening of the 3rd) and the sky will not be fully dark when it starts.  To read more go to: SkyandTelescope.com – Observing Highlights – Quadrantid Meteors: Fire over Ice.