When you want to see the stars, find someplace dark
Quadrantid Meteor Shower
The first meteor shower of 2015 is the annual Quadrantid meteor shower. The Quadrantids are a reliable shower, producing 60-120 ZHR, one to two meteors per minute. The Quadrantids are named for the obsolete constellation Quadrans Muralis, now part of the constellation Boötes.
A pair of Leonid meteors streak through OrionUnlike other showers where activity can occur for days or even weeks, the Quadrantids have a sharp peak, activity falls off rapidly on the preceding and following nights, or even a few hours away from the peak. Thus it is important to observe the Quadrantids quite near the peak prediction. For 2015 the peak is predicted for January 4th around 02:00UT, or January 3rd at 16:00HST on this side of the globe, mid-afternoon. The shower radiant in Boötes does not rise until around 2am local time. Combine the light of a full moon and poor timing and you quickly see that observing conditions are less than ideal for observing this year’s shower.