View bigger. | In 2014, as the Quadrantids flew, people in far northern latitudes saw auroras. Photo by Tommy Eliassen.
The Quadrantid Meteor Shower is the first major meteor shower of 2021. Unfortunately, a bright waning moon will light up the sky on the expected peak night of January 2 to dawn January 3. Although the Quadrantids are known to produce about 50-100 meteors in a dark sky, their peak is extremely narrow. , time-wise. Perseid or Geminid meteor showers last for a day or more, allowing all time zones around the world to enjoy a good representation of Perseids or Geminids. But the peak of the Quadrantides lasts only a few hours. So you have to be on the right part of the Earth – preferably with the radiant ones high in your sky – to experience the top of the Quadrantids. What’s more, the shower favors the Northern Hemisphere because it does radiant point is so far north on the dome of heaven.
So you need some luck to see the Quadrantids, and being in the Northern Hemisphere helps. Who will see the 2021 shower? Keep in mind that the Quadrantid peak prediction represents an educated guess, not a rock-solid guarantee. The Quadrantids are capable of producing bright fireballs, so you can catch a few meteors despite the moonlight.
That said, the International Meteor Organization lists the peak in 2021 on January 3 at 14:30 UTC. If that peak prediction is true, western North America has a good chance of seeing the storm at its best during the hours before sunrise on January 3.
Just know that meteor showers are notorious for defying the best predictions. So for the Quadrantids – as with any meteor shower – your best plan is to just find out for yourself.
The lunar calendars of 2021 are here! There are still a few left. Order yours before they are gone!
Eliot Herman wrote to EarthSky on January 1, 2019: “First meteor of the year… an early quadrantide… just a few days before the summit. Even got its color when it came out of the radiant. Look out for Big Dipper stars at the top of the image. “
Any place in the middle of the northern and far northern latitudes could be in a good position to view the Quadrantids in 2021, but the bright moon will certainly disturb this year’s show.
All other things being equal, for any meteor shower you will probably see the most meteors when the radiation is high in the sky.
In the case of the Quadrantid shower, the point of radiation is highest in the sky seen in the dark hours before sunrise.
From mid-northern latitudes, the radiant point for the Quadrantid shower does not climb over the horizon until after midnight.
Where is the Radiation Point of the Quadrantides?
The radiant point of the Quadrantid shower is roughly at right angles to the Big Dipper and the bright star Arcturus. If you follow the paths of the Quadrantid meteors backwards, it will appear as if they are radiating from this point in the starry sky.
Now for our usual warning. You don’t have to find the meteor shower radiant to see the quadrantide meteors.
You just need to be in the middle of the northern or far northern latitudes, in the early hours of the morning, and hope that the peak comes to your part of the world at just the right time.
The meteors will be beaming from the northern sky, but appear in all parts of the sky.
The now-defunct constellation Quadrans Muralis, after which the Quadrantids are named. Image via Atlas Coelestis.
The Quadrantids are named after a constellation that no longer exists. Most meteor showers are named after the constellations from which they appear. So it is with the quadrantides. But the constellation of the Quadrantids no longer exists, except in memory. The name Quadrantids comes from the constellation Quadrans Muralis (Mural Quadrant), created by the French astronomer Jerome Lalande in 1795. This now obsolete constellation was located between the constellations of Boötes the shepherd and Draco the dragon. Where has it gone?
To understand the history of the name of the Quadrantids, we must go back to the earliest observations of this rainstorm. In early January 1825, Antonio Brucalassi reported in Italy that:
… The atmosphere was traversed by a multitude of the luminous bodies known as shooting stars.
They seemed to radiate from Quadrans Muralis. In 1839, Adolphe Quetelet of the Brussels Observatory in Belgium and Edward C. Herrick in Connecticut independently suggested that the Quadrantids are an annual shower.
But in 1922, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) came up with a list of 88 modern constellations. The list was agreed by the IAU at its inaugural General Assembly held in Rome in May 1922. not Cutout contains a constellation.
Today this meteor shower is named Quadrantids, for the original and now obsolete constellation Quadrans Muralis.
The radiant point for the Quadrantids is now considered the northern tip of Boötes, near the Big Dipper asterism in our sky, not far from Boötes’ brightest star Arcturus. It’s very far north at the sky’s dome, which is why observers in the Southern Hemisphere are unlikely to see many (if any) quadrantid meteors. Most meteors simply don’t make it above the horizon for southern hemisphere skywatchers. But some might!
In 2003 Peter Jenniskens proposed that this object, 2003 EH1, is the mother body of the Quadrantid meteor shower.
Quadrantid meteors have a mysterious parent object. In 2003, astronomer Peter Jenniskens provisionally identified the quadrantids’ mother body as the asteroid 2003 EH1. If this body is indeed the parent of the Quadrantids, then the Quadrantids, like the Geminid meteors, come from a rocky body – not an ice comet. Strange.
In turn, however, 2003 EH1 could be the same object as Comet C / 1490 Y1, which was observed 500 years ago by Chinese, Japanese and Korean astronomers.
So the exact story behind the Quadrantids’ parent object remains somewhat mysterious.
In short, the first major meteor shower of 2021, and each year the Quadrantid meteor shower is likely to be at its best in the hours between 2 a.m. and dawn. Unfortunately, the bright waning moon in 2021 does not mean dark skies during the peak times of this year’s annual Quadrantid meteor shower.
