As a welcome to 2017, the sky will light up with a shower of stars on this night of January 3. It is about the quadrantid starsnamed after the constellation that gave rise to them, Quadrans Muralis, and which now glow like cosmic dust 2003 EH1 body.
It is said that the constellation Quadrans Muralis, described by the French astronomer Jerôme Lalande in 1795, was located between the constellation Boötes de Hersman and Draco, the Dragon. Therefore, in 1839, the meteor shower derived from the constellation was officially named. Since then they have been considered as part of the 88 modern constellations.
Now, this year, it will be possible to see the meteor shower of a constellation that ceased to exist. So just find a place far from city lights and see, in the dark, more than 100 shooting stars per hour. Especially on this day when the moon will be partially illuminating, facilitating the visibility of the Quadrantids. The best time to see them will be between midnight and dawn on January 3-4, 2017although it is not known specifically when its peak will be – although it is estimated to be at 2:00 p.m. UTC.
After the Quadrantids, there will be a penumbral lunar eclipse on the night of February 10-11 as well as an annular eclipse on the 26th. While on April 22 there will be the Lyrids, a meteor shower –of 18 meteors per hour–; and on the 23rd the Pi-Puppidas will occur, with 40 meteors/hour, becoming visible when they are in the southern hemisphere.
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