Must-See Meteor Shower Friday Morning

The Quadrantid meteor shower is due to reach maximum in the predawn hours of Friday, Jan. 4. The Quadrantids are notoriously unpredictable, but if any year promises a fine display, this could be it.

Indeed, this may end up being the best meteor shower of 2008.

Peak intensity is exceedingly sharp: meteor rates exceed one-half of their highest value for only about 8-hours (compared to two days for the August Perseids). This means that the stream of particles that produce this shower is a narrow one – apparently derived within the last 500 years from a small comet.
As viewed from mid-northern latitudes, we have to get up before dawn to see the Quadrantids at their best. This is because the radiant – that part of the sky from where the meteors to emanate – is down low on the northern horizon until about midnight, rising slowly higher as the night progresses. The growing light of dawn ends meteor observing usually by around 7 a.m. So, if the "Quads" are to be seen at all, some part of that 8-hour active period must fall between 2 and 7 a.m.

According to the International Meteor Organization, maximum activity this year is expected on Friday 1:40 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

For those in the eastern United States, the radiant will be about one-quarter of the way up in the east-northeast sky. The farther to the north and east you go, the higher in the sky the radiant will be. To the south and west the radiant will be lower and the meteors will be fewer.

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/0801...or-shower.html