See more. | In 2014, as the Quadrantids flew, people at far northern latitudes saw auroras. Photo by Tommy Eliassen.
Quadrantid meteor shower 2021 is the first major meteor shower. Unfortunately, a bright gibbous moon lights up the skies on the expected peak night from the late night of January 2 to the morning of January 3. Although the Quadrantids are known to emit some 50 -100 meteors in a dark sky, their peak is very narrow, time-wise. Peaks of Perseid or Geminid meteor displays last for a day or more, allowing all time zones around the world to enjoy a good display of Perseids or Geminids. But the peak of the Quadrantids only lasts a few hours. So you need to be on the right part of the Earth – if you prefer the radiant high in your skies – to experience the summit of the Quadrantids. In addition, the shower favors the Northern Hemisphere because of it radiant point as far north as the globe of the skies.
So you need a little luck to see the Quadrantids, and being in the Northern Hemisphere is a help. Who will see the 2021 shower? Keep in mind that Quadrantid’s peak forecast represents a learned estimate, not an ironclad promise. The Quadrantids are able to take out bright fireballs, so you may be able to catch a few meters despite the moonlight.
That said, in 2021 the International Meteor Group will take the peak as of January 3 at 14:30 UTC. If that prediction of the peak is true, the North American west has a good view of watching the shower at its best in the hours leading up to January 3rd.
Just know that meteor exhibitors are famous for going against the best predictions. So for the Quadrantids – as for any shower – your best plan is just to take a look at yourself.
The 2021 lunar calendars are here! There are a few left. Order yours before they leave!
Eliot Herman wrote to EarthSky on January 1, 2019: “First meteor of the year… Early Quadrantid… still a day or two to the maximum. Even his color got the way it came out of the radiant. Note the Big Dipper stars at the top of the image. “
Any place at mid-north and far-north latitudes may be in a good position to look at the Quadrantids in 2021, but the bright moon is definitely entering the show of the year seo.
All else being equal, for any meteor shower, you are very likely to see the largest meteors when the radiant is high in the sky.
In the case of the Quadrantid shower, the highest radiant point is seen in the sky in the dark hours before morning.
From midwestern latitudes, the radiant point for a Quadrantid shower does not climb over the horizon until after midnight.
Where is the radiant point of the Quadrantids?
The radiant point of the Quadrantid shower makes an approximate right angle with the Big Dipper and the bright star Arcturus. If you find Quadrantid meteors traces back, they appear to be radiating from this point on the starry sky.
Now for our usual caveat. You don’t have to find the showerhead to see the Quadrantid meters.
You have to be at mid-north or far north latitudes, up in the wee hours of the morning, and hope that the peak will come at the right time for your part of the world.
The meteors fly from the northern sky, however appear in all parts of the sky.
The Quadrans Muralis, now dead, and the Quadrantids are named. Image through Atlas Coelestis.
The Quadrantids are named for a constellation that no longer exists. Most meteor showers are named for the constellations from which they appear to radiate. So it is with the Quadrantids. But the constellation of the Quadrantids is no longer there, but as a memento. The name Quadrantids comes from the constellation Quadrans Muralis (Mural Quadrant), created by the French astronaut Jerome Lalande in 1795. This constellation was now placed between the constellations Boötes. the Herdsman and Draco the Dragon. Where did he go?
To understand the history of the name of the Quadrantids, we must go back to the earliest ideas of this phrase. In early January 1825, Antonio Brucalassi in Italy said:
• Many of the light bodies were named after stars that fell over the atmosphere.
They appeared to be stinging from Quadrans Muralis. In 1839, Adolphe Quetelet of the Brussels Observatory in Belgium and Edward C. Herrick of Connecticut independently proposed that the Quadrantids be an annual shower.
But in 1922 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) compiled a list of 88 modern constellations. The list was approved by the IAU at the first General Assembly held in Rome in May 1922. It did so. No enter the quadrans Muralis constellation.
Today, this Queor shower retains the name Quadrantids, for the now defunct original consul Quadrans Muralis.
The radiant point for the Quadrantids at the northern end of Boötes, near the Big Dipper astronomy in our skies, near Arcturus, is now considered to be Boötes’ brightest star. It is very far north of the celestial globe, which is why viewers of the Southern Hemisphere do not see many Quadrantid meters (if any). Most meters do not make it above the horizon for Southern Hemisphere astronauts. But maybe some!
In 2003, Peter Jenniskens proposed that this item, the 2003 EH1, be the parent body of the Quadrantid shower.
Quadrantid meteors have something mysterious. In 2003, astronomer Peter Jenniskens unfortunately named the Quadrantids parent group as the 2003 asteroid EH1. If this parent is indeed the parent of the Quadrantids, the Quadrantids, like the Geminid meteors, come from a rocky body – not a frozen comet. Strange.
In turn, however, the 2003 EH1 is probably the same as the comet C / 1490 Y1, which was observed by Chinese, Japanese and Korean astronauts 500 years ago.
So the actual story behind the parent theme of the Quadrantids remains somewhat mysterious.
Baseline: The first major meteor shower in 2021, and every year, the Quadrantid rain shower may be at its best in the hours between 2 am and the morning of January 3. Mis -fortunate, in 2021, the gibbous bright moon does not mean dark skies. at the peak hours of this year’s annual Quadrantid meteor shower.
