Our Shortest, Strongest And Strangest Meteor Shower Peaks This Weekend. Here’s When To See Fireballs - Forbes

A fireball in the night sky during the meteor shower, on August 14, 2016 in Terlingua, Texas.
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The night sky’s most intense meteor shower will peak this Friday night and Saturday morning—and North America is perfectly placed.

The “Quadrantids” aren’t all that well known. Maybe that’s because they’re named after an old an unused constellation called Quadrans Muralis. However, ask anyone with an outdoorsy nature and they’ll likely know about the Perseids meteor showers, an annual fixture fo nature-lovers that occurs in August when many head out on well-timed camping trips. They may even known about December’s multi-coloured Geminids. But the Quadrantids? Despite being technically as prolific as any other meteor shower, the shooting stars of the Quadrantids are lesser-known. Why?

Constellations; Dogs, Etc.; Engraving — (Original Caption) A View of the Heavens. The Constellations, Bootes Canes Venatici, Coma Berenices ... [+] and Quadrans Muralis. Undated engraving.
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It’s cold. January is not a great time to go shooting star-spotting, not if comfort is your primary concern. There will be no laying back on a blanket or deckchair to scan the sky or shooting stars. We’re talking big coats and a quick look to see if anything’s going on.

That’s a shame because the Quadrantids are actually one of the “big three” meteor showers here on planet Earth:

Quadrantids – peaks on January 3/4, 2020 (120 shooting stars per hour)
Perseids – peaks on August 12/13, 2020 (100 shooting stars per hour)
Geminids – peaks on December 13/14, 2020 (120-150 shooting stars per hour)

So why are the Quadrantids considered the most intense meteor shower of the year? All meteor showers have a peak; they’re a stream of dust and debris in space that Earth’s orbital path enters and exits, and when it’s in the densest part of that stream, that’s the “peak” of the shooting star activity. The Quadrantids stream is dense yet narrow, so the peak is short—just six hours.

So you have to catch the Quadrantids at exactly the right time. It’s a global event and it peaks at 8:20 UTC on January 4 in 2020, which translates to these viewing times (if you looked for three hours before and after these times you would experience the entire peak):

03:20 EST (so look from 00:20 on through 06:20 on Saturday, January 4)
00:20 PST (so look from 21:20 on Friday, January 3 through 03:20 on Saturday, January 4)
08:20 GMT (so look from 05:20 on January 4 through sunrise)

The First Quarter Moon will set around midnight.
Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The first quarter Moon will set near local midnight so the viewing conditions for the expected Quadrantid peak are good. Although it is possible that we’ll see up to 120 shooting stars during those peak house, the Quadrantids are known to be rather faint in anything but super-dark skies. However, they do regularly feature bright fireballs. See one of those and you’ll not worry about the rate-per-hour.

When you’re outside, look to the northern sky in the direction of the Big Dipper. Then range down slightly to the constellation of Boötes (the herdsman) and find the very bright red giant star Arcturus. That’s close to the “radiant point” of shooting stars produced by the Quadrantid meteor shower. They can actually appear anywhere in the night sky, though it would be a mistake to face south.

That’s the short and the strong dealt with, but what about the strangeness of the Quadrantids? That comes from their cause, which is still unknown. For one of Earth’s biggest and most intense meteor showers, that’s pretty odd. An asteroid called 2003 EH1—which orbits the sun every 5.5 years—might be the cause, or it could be a comet called C/1490 Y1.

If you’re in Europe, look north in the hours just before dawn. From the east coast of North America, 03:00 a.m. is wisest, and on the west coast of North America get outside and take a look around midnight as the moon sets. Just make sure you keep warm and get somewhere dark where there are no artificial lights in your field of view. The prize could be a fireball from 2020’s first major meteor shower.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

2020-01-02 03:00:05Z
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