QUADRANTIDS AROUND DIM BETELGEUSE Taken by Petr Horálek on January 4, 2020 @ Oravská Lesná, Slovakia

The first major annual meteor shower in 2020, Quadrantids, peaked on January 4th, around 5am UTC. Meteors flying from omitted constellation Quadrant Miralis enter the Earth’s atmosphere almost in vertical direction to Earth’s orbit, meaning the maximum is very sharp. This year the circumstances with waxing Moon to set around local midnight promised great celestial show, unfortunately, the bad weather didn’t allow me to capture the peak itself. However, both nights before and after the maximum were clear, giving me chance to capture this unusual view over Flajšová, Oravská Lesná, Slovakia, with snowy landscape to distant Malá Fatra mountains. Meteors moving to the anti-radiant point in the sky surround by thier trajectories the Orion constellation, where much more unique event can be spotted: The star Betelgeuse, red giant of Orion’s eastern shoulder, is much dimmer than usually. In fact, it changed from one of the top 10 brightest stars in the sky to about the 21st brightest star. Reason is the star’s chemical imbalance, which could cause a bright supernova somewhen in future. Scientists say it can happen anytime in next 100 000 years. Used Canon 6D, Sigma 50mm and f2.0 (pano), Samyang 12mm and f2.8 (meteors), ISO 10000, 10s for panorama shots, 30s for meteors, Optolong L-Pro filter.