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The Quadrantids have the potential to be one of the most active meteor showers of the year, and skywatchers won’t have long to wait to see it. The annual rain is expected to reach its maximum intensity on January 3. And with a display that can Rival PerseidsQuadrantides might be worth braving the cold to see.
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The show officially begins on December 28 and runs until January 12, according to the American Meteor Society. The Quadrantids are expected to peak on January 2 and 3, when they could produce more than 125 meteors per hour. This matches the Perseids and other larger meteor showers on an hourly rate, but the Quadrantids also have one of the shortest peaks at just 6 hours, so they rarely produce as many meteors in total as the other large ones.
The meteor shower comes to Earth thanks to the 2003 asteroid EH1, which is notable because most meteor showers are powered by comets, not asteroids. By NASA2003 EH1 is a near-Earth asteroid that orbits the sun once every five and a half years. Science posits that 2003 EH1 was a comet in a past life, but too many trips around the sun stripped it of its ice, leaving only its rocky core. Earth passes through EH1’s orbital debris every January, resulting in the Quadrantid meteor shower.
The meteors will come from Draco and Bootes, which are next to each other in the night sky. Bootes is home to Arcturus as part of its constellation.
How and where to see the Quadrantids
Quadrantids are named for the constellation from which their meteors appear to originate, a point known as the radiant. This presents another oddity, as the shower comes from the constellation Quadrans Muralis. This constellation ceased to be recognized as an official constellation in the 1920s and is not available on most publicly available sky maps.
For the modern sky observer, you’ll instead need to find the constellations Bootes and Draco, both of which contain stars that were once part of the Quadrans Muralis. Draco will be easiest to find after sunset on the evening of January 2 and will be just above the horizon in the northern sky. Bootes orbits Draco, but will remain below the horizon until just after 1 a.m. local time in the northeastern sky. From then on, both will remain in the northeastern part of the sky until sunrise. You’ll want to point your chair in that direction and stay there to see the meteors.
As the American Meteor Society notes, the Quadrantids have a short but active peak, lasting about 6 hours. The peak is expected to begin around 4 p.m. ET and last until late evening. NASA predicts The meteor shower will begin a day later on January 3-4, so if you don’t see any on the evening of January 2, try again on January 3.
To obtain the best results, the standard space visualization tips apply. You will want to get as far away from the city and suburbs as possible to reduce light pollution. As it is very cold outside, dress warmly and refrain from alcoholic beverages, as they can affect your body temperature. You won’t need binoculars or telescopes, and the reduced field of view can actually impact your ability to see meteors.
The bad news is that in any case, the Quadrantid meteor shower coincides almost perfectly with January’s Wolf Moon, which also it turns out to be a supermoon. This will introduce a lot of light pollution, which will likely drown out all but the brightest meteors. So while the peak may reach over 100 meteors per hour, NASA and AMS agree that the most realistic expectation is around 10 bright meteors per hour.
