Look up in the sky tonight, North-East, and make use of the once in a life time opportunity to make a wish. By 100 to 120 falling stars per hour, you certainly won’t miss the chance to make a wish..
It is a hell of a meteor shower and the very first wish you can make even before the phenomenon sets in is that the sky is not cloudy tonight.
To make the night sky even more spectacular, one of the year’s best meteor showers, the Quadrantid meteor shower, is about to peak overnight on the 3rd and 4th of January, depending on where you are in the world.
The annual meteor shower is thought to be triggered by Earth passing through the tail of rubble that follows behind the small Solar System body 2003 EH1. As these little pieces of debris and space dust burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, they cause spectacular shooting stars – up to 100 every hour.
“On average, the Quadrantids shower 30 meteors per hour, but this year, there’s a prediction the shower can reach up to 100 to 120 meteors per hour, although that’s on a perfect night—no clouds, no moon, no city lights,” said weather observer Nico Mendoza of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astonomical Services Administration (PAGASA) observatory, in an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Monday.
The good news: this year, the meteor shower will appear especially bright because the Moon is a waxing crescent and only partially illuminated, making the Quadrantids easier to see.
The bad news: the shower is pretty much only viewable from the Northern Hemisphere.
The best time to watch the impressive phenomenon is between midnight and dawn.
PS I will be angry tonight, if the Quadrantids won’t move a bit southern as I have no access to NE view… Therefore, all important astronomic phenomena need to occur in the SE, S, SW and W night sky.
