Quadrantids Peak Tonight

This year’s Quadrantids will peak during the morning of January 3rd. Unfortunately, a very bright Moon will be located high in the southern sky during the prime morning meteor watching hours. The American Meteor Society has a nice summary and map of the sky for this year’s Quadrantids.

The Quadrantids are the best shower that you’ve probably never heard of. It’s bad enough that this shower peaks in the middle of winter in the northern hemisphere, but it is also named after a long defunct constellation. When first identified in the early 1800s, the meteors were observed to radiate from the small faint constellation of Quadrans Muralis (the Mural Quadrant). Unfortunately, the constellation didn’t make the cut when the official list of 80 constellations was set in 1930. Today, Quadrans Muralis and the radiant of the Quadrantids can be found on the northern reaches of the constellation Bootes.

Another strike against observing the Quadrantids is their short duration. Most showers, like the Perseids and Orionids, produce high rates of meteors for a few days near their maximum. The Quadrantids are only highly active for 12-24 hours. As a result, the shower can be missed if the peak does not coincide with your early morning observing.

The peak time for this shower is always uncertain on the order of half a day or so and the IMO prediction calls for a peak at 13:30 UT (8:30 am EST, 7:30 am CST, 6:30 am MST, 5:30 am PST) on Jan 3 though this time could be off be 12 hours or more. Observers in Europe and the Americas will be well placed for seeing this year’s peak. Unfortunately observers south of the Equator will not see much from the Quadrantids.

Back in 2009 this shower put on a great show with the peak well observed from the US. Peak rates that year reached a ZHR of ~150-160. But in 2008, 2011 and 2012, rates “only” reached into the 80s. The waning gibbous Moon will be a problem as it rises around 10:45 pm and is up for the rest of the night. With the radiant only getting high enough for easy observing after 3 am the Moon will be a hindrance. Meteor watchers should try to look at a part of the sky that does not include the Moon in your field-of-view.