STAR gazers could be treated to an impressive meteor shower tonight.

Experts at Kielder Observatory say the early hours of Friday morning will provide the best opportunity to spot the Quadrantid meteor shower.

The shower is expected to reach its peak at about 2am on January 4.

Dan Pye, from the observatory, said: “This is a fascinating meteor shower, with a very intriguing past.

“It’s a pretty active shower, with an average over the past ten years of around 150 per hour in perfect conditions with fish eye perspective of the sky, so bodes to be a great shower, plus given the moon will not be visible during this time, it stands to be a great shower.”

It is understood that the shower originates from an Asteroid 2003 EH1, believed to be an extinct comet.

It is understood that the comet, named C/1490 Y1, disintegrated close by, sending debris towards the city of Qingyang in China, which could have created “The Qingyang event” in 1490 – when rocks from the sky caused mass devastation, possibly causing about 10,000 deaths.

Mr Pye added: “There is however a counter argument for this relationship, being that the calendar dates of the occurrence at not correctly matched to the January shower, but nevertheless, still a great tale.”