Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Thursday, January 3rd.  The sun will rise at 8:19.  It’ll be up for 8 hours and 55 minutes, setting at 5:15.   The moon, 1 day before last quarter, will rise at 12:06 tomorrow morning.

This morning will see the peak of the Quadrantid meteor shower.  There’s still time to spot them before the sky brightens too much.  It’s one of the better meteor showers of the year, except it occurs in the cold and not very clear skies of January.  Meteor showers are generally named for the constellation from which they seem to come.  Trouble is, there’s no such constellation of the Quadrant.  Now, that is.  There is a sextant and an octant, but no quadrant.  All these instruments were used by navigators and astronomers to measure the altitude of stars and planets.  The obsolete constellation of the quadrant was located near the handle of the Big Dipper and north of the kite shaped spring constellation of Boötes.  The Quadrantids will be around for the next few mornings.

Times are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan.  They may be different for your location.

Addendum

Quadrantid meteor shower radiant at 1:30 a.m.