How to watch the Quadrantids, the first meteor shower of the year

January kicks off with the Quadrantids, one of the quickest yet strongest meteor showers of the year.

January kicks off with the Quadrantids, one of the quickest yet strongest meteor showers of the year.

The shower is expected to peak overnight between January 3 and 4, according to the American Meteor Society. Sky-gazers in the Northern Hemisphere can best view the shower between the late-night hours of Wednesday and dawn on Thursday.

Meteors are leftover pieces from broken asteroids and comet particles that spread out in dusty trails orbiting the sun. Each year, Earth passes through the debris trails, and pieces of dust and rock create colorful, fiery displays called meteor showers as they disintegrate in Earth’s atmosphere.

The Quadrantid shower is notoriously hard to observe due to its brief peak of six hours. The peak has a limited duration compared with most meteor showers, which peak over two days, because the shower only has a thin stream of particles and Earth passes through the densest concentration of those particles quickly at a perpendicular angle, according to NASA.

Predictions for the shower’s peak range from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m. ET (9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Coordinated Universal Time), but meteors will be visible for hours beforehand. The American Meteor Society recommends keeping an eye out for meteors from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. local time for those across North America.

The earlier time favours those along North America’s East Coast and the later time is more favourable for observers in Hawaii and Alaska. The Quadrantids usually aren’t visible in the Southern Hemisphere because the shower’s radiant point doesn’t rise that high in its sky before dawn.

Check Time and Date’s site to see what your chances are like to view the event.