“Meteor Shower, Partial Solar Eclipse to Coincide Tuesday - AccuWeather.com”

Meteor Shower, Partial Solar Eclipse to Coincide Tuesday - AccuWeather.com

Posted: 03 Jan 2011 10:42 AM PST

By Vickie Frantz, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer

Jan 3, 2011; 1:43 PM ET

After a spectacular meteor shower in the Northern Hemisphere on Tuesday morning, Europe, northern Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia will witness a partial eclipse of the sun.

Quadrantid Meteor Shower

As the Earth passes through a narrow stream of debris from the shattered comet 2003 EH1, a fast flurry of 100 meteors per hour may be visible to viewers if weather is permitting, according to Spaceweather.com.

The best time to view the meteor shower will be just before dawn on Jan. 4. The shower will peak sometime between Jan. 3 at 3:00 p.m. EST and Jan. 4 at 1:00 a.m. EST and will last for only a few hours at most.

This year's shower owes special thanks to a new moon on the night of the peak, which will allow viewing to go on without interference.

If it is too cloudy to view the meteor shower, the U.S. Air Force Space Surveillance Radar in Texas will broadcast live meteor echoes on Spaceweatherradio.com.

Partial Solar Eclipse

After the meteor shower, in western Europe, as much as 86 percent of the sun will be covered by the moon at dawn. This will cause a crescent sunrise.

The shadow will first appear in Algeria at 6:40 UT (1:50 a.m. EST) before it eventually engulfs nearly all of Europe, the northern half of Africa, the Middle East and southern Asia, according to Space.com.

Greatest eclipse will occur at 8:50 UT (3:50 a.m. EST) in northern Sweden, Cairo, Jerusalem, Istanbul and Tehran, according to NASA.gov. Greatest eclipse is when the moon's shadow cone passes closest to the Earth's center. These countries will see a large magnitude partial eclipse at this time.

As the shadow progresses, central Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and northwest China will experience a sunset eclipse.

The partial eclipse will end at 11:00 UT (6:00 a.m. EST).

Crescent sunrise image courtesy of Photos.com.

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