[Star Whisperer] The first time to chase the Quadrant Meteor Shower? The Eight Classics of Zheng'er and the LaborErs are also the third time. The hilarity is a historical constellation named, which no longer exists today, and the radiation point of the Hibiscus meteor shower, which reaches a maximum value around January 4 every year, is about the area between the "back" of today's Draco, the Big Dipper, and the constellation Ofs. Due to its proximity to the North Celestial Pole, the radiation point is still below the horizon at nightfall, and the radiation point in the Beijing (about 40° north latitude) area rises to the horizon until 10 o'clock in the evening, and the south will be later, and even at dawn the radiation point will not reach the highest point. As a result, the actual visible flow of the quadrant meteor shower, one of the three major meteor showers, is discounted a bit, and is usually the best observation period before dawn. This time in 2022, the forecast maximum is about 4:50 a.m. on the 4th, and it coincides with the second day of the first year, almost all night without moonlight interference, becoming the best meteor shower in this year's observation conditions.
Quadrantids meteor shower radiation points simulate a starry sky
If there's one reason to have to chase this year's quadrant meteor shower, it's that the epidemic has been too long, too long. In the past two years, the COVID-19 epidemic has been raging, and most of the time has been confined to the local area, and several planned trips have been snuffed out by the sudden regional epidemic. I really want a happy starry sky carnival to dispel the depression in my heart.
The ideal location is in the north, where the radiation point rises earlier and the weather is clearer and more stable. The destination is the Ming'antu Astronomical Observatory in Inner Mongolia, which is nearly 2,000 kilometers away from Changsha. The most important thing to prepare for is still to comply with the epidemic prevention and control regulations while traveling smoothly, this trip has to go in and out of Beijing twice in total, and the nucleic acid test is only valid for 48 hours, so the second nucleic acid test was done before and after Changsha and Beijing. First fly directly to Beijing, and then drive to Ming Antu with the Beijing congregation. Crossing the magnificent mountains and the Great Wall in the north of Beijing, about 6 hours, passing the Inner Mongolia Taibu Temple Banner and the White Flag, the eyes are completely open, and it is the Inner Mongolia Grassland in winter - it is a snow field.
Blue sky 4 blocks
It was almost 5:30 a.m. and the setting sun was already setting on the western skyline. Everyone quickly found a small hill to stop, because they still wanted to try to see Leonard's Comet. At this time, Leonard has passed through perihelion, the north is no longer suitable for viewing, although the sky is particularly transparent and low altitude is very clean, and eventually only "suspected" targets can only be obtained in telescopes or cameras. After staying for nearly an hour in the evening, the cold in the north has already given us a warning - our hands and feet are about to freeze. Today's forecast is a dozen degrees below minus and below -20°C at night. This is a preheating (pre-cooling) for the observation at night. Fortunately, the sky is generous and brings us the beautiful Venus Belt, this red color is the optical "magic" of the Earth's atmosphere, and the deep blue below is the shadow of the Earth itself, which can only be seen in the opposite direction of the sun under clear and transparent conditions at sunrise and sunset, which is a northern winter greeting gift.
Venus Belt on the Snowfield of Xilin Gol Photo: Star Whisperer
The town of Ming'antu is the seat of the government with the white flag, named after the Qing Dynasty Mongolian astronomer Ming Antu. After driving for half an hour, we finally reached the Minh Antu Observatory. It is a field observation station of the National Astronomical Observatory of China, with longitude 115 ° 15 ′ east, latitude 42 ° 12 ′ north, altitude of 1365 m, with two 20 meters radio telescopes, the most famous equipment is the Ming Antu radio spectrum heliograph - MUSER (MingantU SpEctral Radioheliograph), also known internationally as the Chinese Radio Spectral Heliograph (CSRH - The Chinese Spectral). RadioHeliograph )。 THE MUSER consists of 100-sided parabolic antennas arranged in three Archimedean spirals, including 40 4.5-meter aperture antennas and 60-sided 2-meter aperture antennas, with the farthest two antennas 3.2 km apart. This is the first time in the world to achieve detection in the centimeter-decimeter band at the same time with high time, high space and high frequency resolution, the first formation of the instantaneous "three-dimensional" observation of the initial release zone of solar energy, similar to the rapid CT of the sun, this technology fills the scientific gap of coronal mass ejection (CME) imaging observation in the radio band, which will greatly promote the development of solar physics and space weather science. It has been highly rated by its U.S. counterparts and the European Solar Radio Symposium.
Ming'an map radio spectrum heliostat distribution map and long-range map Source: National Astronomical Observatory website
Because of MUSIC, the Ming'antu Observatory is now not only a star scientific research station in China, but also undertakes the heavy responsibility of science popularization. That's the premise that we can come here to watch the stars. Under the premise of strictly adhering to the open science popularization system of the Ming'antu Observation Base, the observatory teacher allowed us to enter the central area of the radio array.
For the quadrant meteor shower, because its active time is very narrow, many fancy plans to shoot only a few hours before dawn. But I think this is too deserving of the reputation of the "big three" meteor showers, after all, the radiation point in the 42° north latitude area rises to the horizon at about 9:20. Spanning 2,000 kilometers, even if it is just the starry sky, it is not to be missed.
The explosion of air under the stars of Ming Antu Photo: Star Whisperer
In the quiet grassland, the large radio telescope of 20 meters in diameter of Minh Antu stands tall, majestic and slightly lonely. In the background of the brilliant winter night starry sky, the huge parabolic metal mirror and bracket override other artificial objects, cold and mysterious. What the naked eye cannot detect and the later photos can reveal is that in the background of the night sky of the high-altitude grassland, a pink glow has erupted, and this faint atmospheric luminescence phenomenon is not as bright and brilliant as the aurora, but it is also the photochemical reaction of the middle and upper atmospheres under the stimulation of the sun's electromagnetic radiation, with a variety of rich colors.
Orion with quadrant meteor in 20-meter radio lens Photo: Star Whisperer
In the middle of the night, the temperature dropped, and the residual snow stained the hills in the distance a little white, leaving only empty and silent. Even more distant and deep is the brilliant stars of the constellation Orion above it, and in the astronomical camera, the red nebula is clearly displayed, including the magnificent Barnard ring, the delicate rose nebula and so on. There is also the radiant Sirius, the blue-white Betelgeuse, the orange-yellow Betelgeuse, such a wonderful and rich cosmic information, as if it is all received by a huge radio telescope. At 11 o'clock, I began to see bright meteors streaking past and falling south, as if landing on top of a large radio.
The Winter Milky Way is star-studded, the most notable of which is the stars known as the "Big Diamond of Winter Night". It is composed of six bright stars of Orion VII, Sirius Inuyasha, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Kita Iii Gemini, Auristus V. 2, Bildaurus V. This is the most brilliant and concentrated part of the winter night starry sky. Take a look at this long-exposed photo of the winter starry sky and find out what other starry sky treasures are in this galaxy treasure box.
Big Diamond of Winter Night, Galaxy Treasure Box Photo: Star Whisperer
Take a look at this long-exposed photo of the winter starry sky and find out what other starry sky treasures are in this galaxy treasure box.
Radio spectral imaging cameras (MUSER) radio arrays are spread over an area of several square kilometers, and most are concentrated in the center of the spiral, near the base of the observatory. Standing on the ground, you can't see the spiral-shaped spatial layout, but looking up at the many "iron mushrooms" jungle with a diameter of several meters is a mystery. Coupled with the weak red light of the mechanical department of each radio telescope, the dome equipment room with the green light is like the robot R2-D2 in Star Wars, this series of sci-fi lighting effects seems to bring people into the future interstellar world. Meteors kept sliding down, and many bright meteors were visible to the eye, flashing emerald green fire, dragging long traces of light across the sky tens of degrees wide. There are also bright meteors that emit a near-white glow. However, most meteors are still relatively faint, and the brightness and scale distribution are not evenly distributed. However, they are all like messengers of the universe, flashing through the sky with the secrets of the starry sky, as if only the attentive observer and the hundreds of radio lenses around them can decipher their codes.
Remember that "Big Diamond of Winter Nights"? This huge treasure in the night sky is constantly shining dazzlingly, and the meteors are like diamonds shooting into your eyes, and they and the interstellar fragments that fall this night form a magnificent picture of "diamond stardust".
Interstellar Science Fiction and Diamond Stardust Photography: Star Whisperer
Some fire meteors not only bring brilliant brilliance, but also have obvious traces of meteors. Meteors pass through the air emit a lot of light and heat, which will ionize the surrounding gas and quickly diffuse to form a columnar ionization cloud centered on the meteor's trajectory, which is the "meteor remnant". Meteor remnants consist of ionized clouds and meteor fragments. When looking, there will be a bright smoke and dust after the bright light of the fire meteor explosion, which can be called "cosmic fireworks". The light of a meteor is fleeting, while the faint remnants can last a long time and are only recognizable in photographs. For example, the remnants of the meteor I photographed in the early morning of January 4, 2022, actually lasted about 16 minutes or more.
More photos later confirm that the afterglow lasted more than 16 minutes
At four o'clock in the morning, the Orion stars gradually sank into the horizon, but the night sky was not flat at all. First of all, the low altitude in the north, a large green glow began to spread, gradually filling the entire sky from the north. Although there are fewer bright stars, the constellations of the northern starry sky are also more pronounced. Targets such as the Big Dipper, the North Star, Draco, the Arcturian Star, and the Northern Corona entered the center of the stage, and at this time, the peak period of the quadrant meteor shower was also ushered in. The radiation point also rises to an altitude of about 50°. The probability of bright meteors also seems to increase. My camera was working automatically, and under the distortion effect of the 12mm fisheye lens I used, the radio array seemed to be facing the direction of the radiation point, directly receiving falling meteors. And I watched the stars fall under the stars until dawn.
The Quadrant Meteor Shower of the Ming Antu Photo: The Star Whisperer This image was selected as the APOD Daily Astronomical Chart on January 8
By the way, every time the meteor shower night after the review of the photo, are both excited and annoyed, the workload is very large, found that the shooting star is very happy, but now the sky environment more and more artificial aircraft, such as aircraft night lights, satellite reflections, etc., often brighter than meteors, more and more numerous. Some satellite flashes are very stunning, not the protagonist, but can also steal the limelight of meteors. The night also captured the starlink, many of which rose from the eastern horizon at more than 4 a.m. and laid their tracks in the night sky in a cross-grid shape. The trajectory of the artificial vehicle looks interesting, but it is annoying to stargazers on the ground.
The flashing satellite flash, not the protagonist, but very eye-catching Photo: Star Whisperer
Star Tracks, Meteors and Chains of Stars Photography: Star Whisperer
This is a stack composite image taken in the early hours of January 4, 2022, during the quadrant meteor shower. The brightest flash of a meteor in the center actually belongs to an artificial satellite. The foreground is a 20-meter-diameter radio telescope at the Ming'antu Observatory in Inner Mongolia, China, and the brightest trace on it is Arcturus Morgods. Did you notice that underneath the radio telescope, there is a series of cross-crossing trajectories? They are the Starlink series of satellites (according to heavens-above.com data, I think they are STARLINK-2139, STARLINK-2100, STARLINK-2106, STARLINK-2135, STARLINK-2101, STARLINK-1403, STARLINK-1434, STARLINK-1316, STARLINK-1257 and so on )。 The light trajectory on the right comes from the plane. The trajectory of the artificial vehicle looks interesting, but it is annoying to stargazers on the ground.
STARLINK-1403 - Transit Details
STARLINK-1316 - Transit Details
Later, I submitted the meteor shower work taken this night to NASA's Daily Astronomical Map (APOD) website, and surprisingly, it was selected by the editor to publish it on January 8, and soon the Chinese mirror column of the Beijing Planetarium was also released in China. I am honored to stay in the international astronomical circle with the name of the Chinese radio spectrum heliograph, and even happier is that this is my second time in the APOD, the first time is also the quadrant meteor shower (APOD January 3, 2020, quadrant meteor shower on the Great Wall). Astronomical gag, I am the spokesperson for APOD's quadrant meteor shower! It's no wonder that among the works published by APOD, there are only a few photos of quadrant meteor showers, and I have two seats! This may be related to the relatively low flow of quadrant meteor showers and the difficult shooting conditions, and Chinese photographers have begun to "roll inside" in the astrophotography circle today, I am also considered lucky! Thanks to the friends who traveled with me this time, and also thanked the teachers of the Minh Antu Observatory, this is not only a pleasant journey to follow the stars, but also a friendship trip. Minanto is also adding new and expanding more large-scale observation equipment, such as the meter-wave-ten-meter radio imager, the interplanetary scintillation telescope and the ultra-wideband radio spectrometer, which are important facilities for conducting space weather research and ensuring national space activities and space security. I hope that in the future, there will be an opportunity to witness the proud astronomical achievements of the motherland, which is the greatest wish of an astronomical enthusiast.
Welcome to the headlines: Authentic Star Whisperers