You Can Kick Off 2021 By Watching The First Meteor Shower Of The Year This Weekend

The view gets better the further north you are!
Quadrantids Meteor Shower Of 2021 Is Starting Off The New Year With Its Peak On January 3
Lucas Ludwig | Unsplash
Senior Writer

If you want to start the new year off on a celestial note, the Quadrantids meteor shower of 2021 will peak over Canada this weekend and it's the first one of the year.

Typically, this one can produce more than 100 meteors per hour when moonlight isn't obstructing the view but there's a narrow window of time to see it happen.

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January 3 when the Quadrantids meteor shower peaks

The Quadrantids meteor shower peaks for only a couple of hours and is best seen from more northern areas because its radiant point (where it appears to originate to viewers) is north in the sky.

According to EarthSky, your chances of seeing shooting stars are greater between 2:00 a.m. and dawn on January 3.

You can find the radiant point near the Big Dipper in the north-northeastern sky after midnight and higher just before dawn.

However, meteors will streak across all parts of the sky, not just where the radiant is.

Since the moon will be in its waning gibbous phase, the bright light will obstruct your view a bit but you should still be able to see some shooting stars.

Speaking of space, it was recently announced that Canada will send an astronaut around the moon and it will make history.

  • Senior Writer

    Lisa Belmonte (she/her) is a Senior Writer with Narcity Media. After graduating with a Bachelor of Journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), she joined the Narcity team. Lisa covers news and notices from across the country from a Canada-wide perspective. Her early coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic earned Narcity its first-ever national journalism award nomination.

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