How to Watch the First Big Meteor Shower of the Year

Brilliant streaks of light are set to illuminate the sky, heralding the year’s first celestial spectacle.

The Quadrantid meteor shower is set to peak on Friday, January 3, during the early hours before dawn, putting on a spectacular show throughout the night with at least 30 to 60 meteors per hour. This year’s Quadrantids won’t have interference from the Moon’s light, guaranteeing a better viewing experience for one of the most popular meteor showers to grace our skies.

To fully enjoy the Quadrantids this year, the meteor shower is best viewed from the Northern Hemisphere, though it will still be visible across the entire sky, according to EarthSky. The meteor shower should be enjoyed from a poorly lit area, preferably away from city lights. You should be prepared for a long night as it starts to peak around 2 a.m. and last until dawn.

Last year, sky watchers had some interference from the Moon, which was 51% full the night the Quadrantids peaked. This year, however, the meteor shower will coincide with a waxing crescent Moon, which will not interfere with the view of the streaking lights.

The Quadrantids are an annual shower that was first spotted in 1825. It is active from late December until mid-January. The meteor shower has a narrow peak window that lasts for a few hours each year due to its thin stream of particles and the angle at which Earth crosses the stream, according to NASA.

Still, the meteor shower puts on quite the show during those few hours. Quadrantids are known for bright fireball meteors, which produce bigger explosions of light and color that originate from larger particles of material.

Although most meteor showers originate from comets, the Quadrantids come from an asteroid. The space rock, known as Asteroid 2003 EH1, orbits the Sun once every five and a half years. It’s a relatively small asteroid, measuring around two miles (three kilometers) across, and may be a dead comet or a rock comet (an asteroid with an orbit that resembles that of a comet).

The Quadrantids’ radiant, or the point in the sky from which the meteor shower appears to come from, is an obsolete constellation called the Quadrans Muralis, according to NASA. French astronomer Jerome Lalande created the constellation in 1795, but it was scratched off the list of recognized constellations in 1922 by the International Astronomical Union.

The first meteor shower of the year kicks off a series of astronomical events that can be enjoyed by sky enthusiasts, including the four planets Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter being visible during the first couple of hours after sunset throughout the month of January.