Look bigger. | While the quadrants flew in 2014, people at northern latitudes saw auroras. Photo by Tommy Eliassen.
The Quadrantid meteor shower is the first major meteor shower in 2021. Unfortunately, a bright waning moon will rise into the sky during 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 very narrow. , time-wise. Peaks of the Perseid or Geminid meteor showers last a day or longer, so that all time zones around the world can enjoy a good display of Perseid or Gemini. But the quadrantied peak lasts only a few hours. You must therefore be on the right side of the earth – preferably with the radiant height in your sky – to experience the peak of the Quadrantids. What’s more, the shower favors the Northern Hemisphere because it radiation point is so far north on the dome of heaven.
So you need luck to see the quadrants, and being in the Northern Hemisphere does help. Who will see the 2021 shower? Keep in mind that predicting Quadrantid Peak is an educated guess, not an iron-clad guarantee. The quadrantids can produce some bright fireballs, so you can catch some meteors, despite the moonlight.
That said, in 2021, the International Meteorological Organization will peak as January 3 at 14:30 UTC. If the forecast of the peak holds, West North America could see the shower at its best during the early morning hours of January 3rd.
Just know that meteorite showers are notorious for resisting the best predictions. So, for the quadrants – as for any meteor shower – your best plan is simply to look after yourself.
The lunar calendars of 2021 are here! A few more left. Order yours before they leave!
Eliot Herman wrote to EarthSky on January 1, 2019: ‘First meteor of the year … an early quadrant … a few more days after the peak. Even got its color when it emerged from the radiant. Note that Big Dipper stars are at the top of the picture. ”
Anywhere on the central northern and far northern latitudes is in a decent position to view the Quadrantids in 2021, but the bright moon will surely turn on this year.
All other things being equal, for any meteor shower you will probably see most meteors when the radiation is high in the sky.
In the case of the Quadrantid shower, the radiation point is seen highest in the sky in the darkest hours before dawn.
From the northern latitude, the radiation point for the Quadrantid shower only climbs over the horizon after midnight.
Where is the radiation point of the quadrant?
The radiating point of the Quadrantid shower makes an approximate right angle with the Big Dipper and the bright star Arcturus. If you follow the paths of the Quadrantid meteors backwards, they seem to radiate from this point into the starry sky.
Now for our usual reservation. You do not have to find the meteorite bar radiating to see the Quadrantid meteors.
You just have to be in the middle-north or far-north latitudes, until the morning hours, hoping that the peak will come in your part of the world at the right time.
The meteors will radiate from the northern sky, but appears in all parts of the sky.
The now dilapidated constellation Quadrans Muralis, for which the Quadrantids are named. Image via Atlas Coelestis.
The quadrantids are named after a constellation that no longer exists. Most meteorite showers are named after the constellations from which they apparently radiate. So it is with the Quadrantids. 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 herdsman and Draco the dragon. Where did it go?
To understand the history of the name of the quadrants, we must go back to the earliest observations of this shower. In early January 1825, Antonio Brucalassi reported in Italy that:
… the atmosphere is traversed by a multitude of bodies known as falling stars.
They seem to radiate from Quadrans Muralis. In 1839, Adolphe Quetelet of the Brussels Observatory in Belgium and Edward C. Herrick in 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 IAU agreed on the list during the first General Assembly held in Rome in May 1922 not includes a constellation Quadrans Muralis.
Today, this meteor shower retains the name Quadrantids, for the original and now obsolete constellation Quadrans Muralis.
The radiation point for the quadrantids is now considered to be at the northern tip of Boötes, near the Big Dipper star in our sky, not far from Boötes’ brightest star Arcturus. It is very far north of the dome of the sky, and therefore observers in the Southern Hemisphere are unlikely to see many (if any) quadrant-like meteors. Most meteors will just not get it out of the horizon for aerial viewers in the Southern Hemisphere. But some can!
In 2003, Peter Jenniskens suggested that this object, 2003 EH1, is the parent body of the Quadrantid meteor shower.
Quadrant meteors have a mysterious object. In 2003, astronomer Peter Jenniskens identified the parent body of the Quadrantids as the asteroid 2003 EH1. If this body is indeed the Quadrantids parent, the Quadrantids, like the Geminid meteors, come from a rocky body – not an icy comet. Strange.
In turn, however, EH1 in 2003 may be the same object as comet C / 1490 Y1, which was observed 500 years ago by Chinese, Japanese and Korean astronomers.
The exact story behind the Quadrantids parent object thus remains somewhat mysterious.
In short: the first major meteor shower of 2021 and every year the Quadrantid meteor shower will probably be at its best in the hours between 02:00 and dawn 3 January. Bright, in 2021, the bright waning moon of the moon means no dark sky. during the peak times of this annual Quadrantid meteor shower.
