Meteor shower arrives Monday night

One of the best meteor shows of the year willpeak Monday night, with the Quadrantids possibly producing as many as 100 an hour.

The actual number of meteors visible will vary with the oberserver's location, time and background light making dark, rural areas the best viewing option.

The peak will be sometime between 8 p.m. ET and 2 a.m., according to media reports, although the best viewing times differ widely among experts. It will get darker sooner in Eastern Canada, so early viewing will be better. But in Western Canada, even a clear sky won't help for early viewers, because daylight will make the meteors invisible at that time.

"While it doesn't grab much headlines, being set in the tail end of the winter holidays, the Quadrantids are about as intense as the Perseids, and promise to put on a pretty light show for those skywatchers willing to brave the chilly weather to look for them," Conrad Jung, an astronomer at the Chabot Space & Science Centre in Oakland, Calif., told National Geographic.

Given the Canadian weather, the Ottawa Valley Astronomy and Observers Group said dress for 10 C less than the forecast, because staying still and watching the sky is a chilly business, even in summer.

Quadrantidmeteorswill appear to start from the Big Dipper's handle, but will streak across the sky "so keep your eyes open,"Jim Todd, planetarium manager at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, told National Geographic.

The Quadrantidsare named after a constellation which was later included in the constellation Bootes.

Observers who can't see the shower can hear it through the U.S. Air Force space surveillance radar. When a meteor passes over the radar, located in Texas, there is a "ping," which can be heard on Spaceweather Radio.