Are you ready to watch the first meteor shower of 2016? This shower, known as the Quadrantidis is happening right now and no matter where you are in the world, you can watch it live above. According to NASA, at its peak, the Quadrantidis can yield up to 120 meteors per hour. Unfortunately, this peak is pretty short-lived – you've only got about a 2-hour window to see this spectacular event.
This meteor shower is also a little different to most. While most meteor showers occur when Earth passes through a ring of dust and debris shed by a comet, the source body for the Quadrantids is asteroid 2003 EH1.
The Slooh Observatory is taking the hard work out of waiting for the shower to peak by live-streaming it for us. The broadcast is on right now, and will continue late into the night, when the show really begins.
But if you want to see the Quadrantids the old-fashioned way, if you're on the West Coast of the US, you should try to keep an eye on the stars after midnight until dawn Monday morning. Other locations may be able to see the meteors as well, depending on the sunlight and light pollution obscuring the night sky. You can check out visibility in your city here.
If you're planning on watching Quadrantids in person, we recommend getting to the darkest area possible, with minimal light pollution. Try not to look at any external lights, including mobile phones to keep your night vision as good as possible. And try and stay warm!
If you are watching the livestream, depending on where you live and your internet speed, we recommend reloading the page if it doesn't work for you the first time.
Meteor showers can be unpredictable, and we don't know how good this one will be, but being the first one of the year makes it special, and we hope it brings in the New Year with style!