One of the most intense and briefest meteor showers of the year, the Quadrantids, will peak overnight tonight.
One of the most intense and briefest meteor showers of the year, the Quadrantids, will peak overnight tonight. Because the show is usually only a few hours long and often obscured by winter weather, it doesn't have the same celebrated status as the Geminids or Perseids. However, the Quadrantid shower, which won't be affected by the moon this year, can produce about 40 "shooting stars" per hour before dawn.
Quadrantid meteors take their name from an obsolete constellation, Quadrans Muralis, found in early 19th-century star atlases between Draco, Hercules and Bootes.
To view January's only meteor shower, simply go outside after midnight and face northeast. Observe from a location that's as dark as possible. and leave your telescope or binoculars at home.
The shower's radiant (a point in the sky from which meteors appear to stream) will lie about 15 degrees above the northeastern horizon in the constellation Bootes at 2 a.m. Quadrantid meteors can appear anywhere in the heavens, but their trails will point back toward the radiant.
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