Between heaven & earth

The suffering of a stargazer

Recently, the "Quadrantids" could also have been observed in Vorarlberg. At least in theory. In practice, dense clouds made this impossible.(Bild: Dominik Pollok)

As an antidote to the health-threatening political excitement of these weeks, "Krone" science expert Dr. Christian Mähr takes on a decidedly non-political topic - shooting stars.

In the first week of the new year, the public was made aware of the "quadrantids" and recommended to observe them. What are these things? Shooting stars, a meteor stream. There was something strange about this recommendation. The Quadrantids only occur in the first week of January, peaking on the night of the third to fourth of January. The place where the shooting stars all seem to come from is called the radiant. This point is still low on the horizon in the first half of the night, and only rises to 70 degrees at the "hour of the wolf" (three to four o'clock in the morning), when up to 200 meteors can be seen. Per hour. Well, then! What, you haven't seen the quadrantids? And why not? I always wonder how such recommendations make it into a newspaper. Has the writer ever made an astronomical observation themselves? At four o'clock in the morning on January 4th? Probably not.