January kicks off with a bit of a cosmic scheduling conflict. The year’s first major meteor shower is peaking just as a bright supermoon floods the sky, forcing stargazers to choose between volume and visibility.
The Quadrantid meteor shower reaches its peak Friday night into early Saturday morning, according to the American Meteor Society. Under ideal conditions, the Quadrantids can deliver around 25 meteors per hour. This year, the moon has other plans. Saturday’s supermoon is expected to wash out much of the show, cutting that number to fewer than 10 meteors an hour for most observers.
“The biggest enemy of enjoying a meteor shower is the full moon,” Mike Shanahan, planetarium director at Liberty Science Center, told the Associated Press.
A Meteor Shower Is Peaking Right Now, and the Supermoon Is Ruining the Vibes
Meteor showers happen when Earth plows through debris left behind by comets or asteroids. Those tiny space rocks slam into the atmosphere at high speed and burn up, creating brief streaks of light commonly called shooting stars. A few pop up on any clear night, but showers like the Quadrantids show up reliably each year when Earth crosses a denser patch of debris.
The Quadrantids are known for being short and intense. They’re also known for cold viewing conditions and unpredictable peaks, which already make them a bit of a commitment. Add a supermoon, and patience becomes part of the experience.
A supermoon happens when a full moon coincides with the closest point in its orbit around Earth. That proximity makes it appear slightly larger and significantly brighter. According to NASA, a supermoon can appear up to 14 percent bigger and about 30 percent brighter than the faintest full moon of the year. The size difference is subtle. The brightness is not.
That brightness is important when you’re hunting faint streaks of light. Jacque Benitez of the Morrison Planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences told the AP that early evening hours might offer the best chance to catch brighter fireballs before the moon dominates the sky. Another option is heading out just before dawn on Sunday, when the radiant point climbs higher.
You don’t need special equipment to watch. Give your eyes time to adjust, stay off your phone, and scan the whole sky. The meteors will appear as quick white flashes rather than long cinematic trails.
The Quadrantids are named after a constellation that no longer officially exists, which feels fitting for a meteor shower that often gets overshadowed. After this weekend, the next major meteor display, the Lyrids, arrives in April.
As for supermoons, Saturday’s event closes out a four-month stretch that began in October. There won’t be another one until late 2026. The moon may steal some attention this weekend, but even a diminished meteor shower beats staying inside, wondering what you missed.
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