Sky & Telescope - January 2020 - 48

JANUARY 2020 OBSERVING
Celestial Calendar by Bob King

Quadrantid Meteor Shower
1 am, Jan 4

Big
Dipper
Polaris

Catch
the Quads
After a bright Moon slammed
both the Perseids and the
Geminids last year, January
opens with the promise of
an excellent show from the
Quadrantid meteor shower.

like to think of the "Quads" as the
shower without a home. Its meteors radiate from within the obsolete
constellation Quadrans Muralis, the
Mural Quadrant (which was a device
once used to measure star positions).
Joseph Jérôme de Lalande invented the
ﬁgure in the 1790s using a handful of
faint stars glimmering in the empty
realm north of Boötes and south of
Draco. Soon after, the quadrant made
an appearance in several star atlases,
including Johann Bode's Uranographia,
and stuck around long enough to brand
the Quadrantids when the shower was
ﬁrst recognized in the 1830s.
Alas, the constellation was not universally accepted and ultimately shown
the door in the early 20th century. But
it has bequeathed its name to the ﬁrst
meteor shower of the new year. The
Quads peak on the night of January 3-4
with the best view in the early morning
after about 2 a.m. local time until the
start of dawn around 6 a.m. The focal
point, or radiant, of the shower stands
at the juncture of Hercules, Boötes, and
Draco and climbs high in the northeast
sky before ﬁrst light.
While many meteor showers are
active for several nights, the Quadrantids are famous for their fussiness,
with a peak typically lasting only about
6 hours. If the radiant is well-placed

JANUARY 2 02 0 * SK Y & TELESCOPE

URSA
MINOR

URSA
MAJOR
10°
Mizar

Little Dipper
Quadrantid
radiant

DRACO

BOÖTES

HERC ULES

Arcturus

Looking Northeast

The radiant for the Quadrantids is in northern Boötes. By 1 a.m. local time
the radiant is well above the horizon for observers at mid-northern latitudes,
with best viewing possibilities after 2 a.m. local time.

during that time at your location, you
could see up to 120 meteors per hour,
according to the American Meteor Society. That's an idealized number assuming no Moon, the radiant at the zenith,
and pristine skies.
Off-peak you'll see closer to 25 meteors an hour from a dark site. I caught
the shower close to maximum under
clear skies just once back in the 1980s.
What a show! Meteors sparked about
one a minute across the frigid pre-dawn
sky, including a few ﬁreballs, a classic
Quadrantid characteristic. If you live in
North America, 2020 is the year you've
been waiting for. The International
Meteor Organization (IMO) puts the
peak at around 8h UT on January 4th, or
3 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, favorable
for North America. The ﬁrst-quarter
Moon sets by 1:30 a.m., leaving a blissfully black sky perfect for Quad-gazing.
My favorite way to enjoy a winter
meteor shower is to crack open the
squeaky folding chair and square it up
in the driveway. As far as which direction to face, any works, but I like to look

about 90° either side of the radiant for
a nice mix of long- and short-trailed
meteors. Once settled in I pull a big,
wool blanket up to my chin and do
nothing for the next hour or two but
absorb the beauty of the stars and whatever meteors chance by.
If possible, face away from the worst
light pollution to preserve night vision
and maximize your meteor count. The
majority of meteors are faint, so the
darker the sky the more you'll see.
If you're planning on taking photos,
get an intervalometer for your DLSR. The
device presses the shutter button for you
at preset intervals, so you don't have to
maintain a frozen vigil at the camera.
You can purchase one at camera shops
or online outlets including eBay. Use
a wide-angle lens with a focal length
of 35 mm or less and start with an
exposure of 30 seconds at f/2.8 and ISO
1600. Once activated, the intervalometer will snap one photo after another
while you cozy away under that blanket.
If you think frost or dew might become
a problem, rubber-band a couple of

Sky & Telescope - January 2020

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