Spring Fever Already?
This Wednesday will be the latest sunrise of 2011. It seems like winter is barely underway, but after Wednesday we can begin to look forward to Spring as we gain time on both ends of the day. Tonight the earth is at Perihelion, the earth’s closest point to the sun during its orbit around the sun. Sounds like it should be warm right? Not the case, it’s all about he axial tilt. Tonight the Quadrantid meteor shower peaks between midnight tonight and sunrise tomorrow morning. With excellent conditions for viewing, you can catch a great show. The shower will have a rate of 120 meteors per hour and ranks as one of the top meteor showers of the year. Also, who celebrates Christmas in January? All this and more on this week’s Sky Talk.[audio: st20110103.mp3]
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Skytalk is hosted by WHYY's Dave Heller. Each week he discusses the latest news in astronomy with Dr. Derrick H. Pitts of the Franklin Institute.
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