The new year of 2025 opens with the peak of a meteor shower! But you have to get up really early to watch on Jan. 3 or stay up really late tonight, Thursday, Jan. 2. Also, look north.
It the the Quadrantid shower. And it’s a good one. However, unlike other meteor events the peak is short but sweet. Expect close to 100 meteors flying across the sky for a few hours before dawn, Friday. But even 200 have been known at its peak.
The Quadrantids actually started in late November and continue until mid January but their peak at more than 80 an hour. It is when their radiant is high overhead early this Friday morning. The sky should be dark because a waxing crescent moon will have set early the night before.
This shower gets its name from the Quadrans Muralis, an obsolete constellation. Its radiant is near the Big Dipper which will be in the far northern sky tonight so not easily visible in the Southern Hemisphere. Its parent is the asteroid 2003 EH1.
BTW This is the only good meteor shower to watch until April.
For more info visit EarthSky, Time and Date, Space.
