The meteor rates exceed one-half of their highest value for only about eight hours (compared to two days for the August Perseids), which means that the stream of particles that produces this shower is narrow, and apparently deriving within the last 500 years from some orbiting body. which in turn may be related to the comet
C/1490 Y1 This meteor shower is best seen in the northern hemisphere, but it can be seen partly to 50 degrees south latitude. They appeared to radiate from Quadrans Muralis. In 1839,
Adolphe Quetelet of
Brussels Observatory in Belgium and Edward C. Herrick in Connecticut independently made the suggestion that the Quadrantids are an annual shower. In 1922, the
International Astronomical Union (IAU) devised a list of 88 modern constellations. The list was agreed upon by the IAU at its inaugural general assembly held in Rome in May 1922. It did not include a constellation Quadrans Muralis. The IAU officially adopted this list in 1930, but this meteor shower still retains the name Quadrantids, for the original and now-obsolete constellation. == See also ==