2011 Quadrantids Meteor Shower
by Mike Hankey, under Comets & Meteors
The 2011 Quadrantids Meteor Shower peaked this morning at 1:00 a.m.
I took photos last night continuously from about 8:00 PM till dawn and only caught one meteor, but it was a good one.
Here’s the meteor at full resolution:
To see the full shot, click here.
The cool thing about it is, the meteor left behind a visible smoke trail that showed up in 20+ consecutive frames after the flash. That’s more than 10 minutes! Its hard for me to say for sure, but I think this may have been a fireball.
Here’s an animated sequence of about 10 frames that shows the smoke trail left by the meteor.
This shower will be active until January 10th and with all the fireball activity happening lately, it is worth checking out!
Photo Details
Canon 50d DSLR
25 Seconds @ ISO 800
Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 fish eye lens
Mounted Piggy Back to CGEM
UPDATE: 1/4/2010
As I was driving home today I realized that I would have probably caught this picture on one of my new security cameras. I knew the exact time was 2:43, so when I got home I checked the video log. Sure enough, I just barely caught it at the edge of the screen.
Look in the center top of the video to see the fireball at the 2 second mark. You may need to replay the video a few times to get it.
January 4th, 2011 on 2:20 pm
Great animation! Though this is not “smoke” but a so-called “persistent train” made of actively radiating gases; details of the chemistry behind that long-studied phenomenon are still not quite clear.
January 4th, 2011 on 2:36 pm
That smoke trail footage is amazing!
January 4th, 2011 on 3:19 pm
Mike,
I think that is the finest picture of a Quadrantid I have seen. Almost all of the Quad photographs I have seen are of much fainter meteors. I would agree that it was a fireball perhaps with a peak magnitude near -9.
January 4th, 2011 on 5:54 pm
Nice work Mike! We had intermittant cloud cover here in southwest PA…But I managed to count about thirteen before the clouds took over completely. Very nice shot!
January 4th, 2011 on 9:14 pm
Great shot! I watched for a short period this morning, however saw none.
January 4th, 2011 on 11:13 pm
Mike,
Nice work! That is definitely a fireball, and I think it is cool that you’ve captured the persistent train too. I was clouded out in Eastern Ontario, so no luck for me this time. Thanks for sharing your results!
January 5th, 2011 on 11:09 am
Great video! Always impressive to see a meteor caught on camera…especially in such great quality.
January 5th, 2011 on 6:24 pm
Nice work Mike. Next you know, we’ll have to have a best meteor shot of the year contest. I’m sure you and Pierre will be in the running!
January 15th, 2011 on 2:55 am
If everything floating in space is random, how could that have any impact on your personality and life?