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January Sky Spectacle: Supermoon Outshines Meteor Shower
Get ready for a celestial double feature this January, as the year’s first supermoon and the Quadrantid meteor shower converge in our night skies. However, stargazers hoping for a dazzling display of “shooting stars” might find the supermoon stealing the spotlight, literally.
The Quadrantid meteor shower is set to peak from Friday night into Saturday morning, according to the American Meteor Society. While typically offering around 25 meteors per hour in optimal dark conditions, the bright glow of Saturday’s supermoon is expected to reduce visibility to fewer than 10 per hour. Mike Shanahan, planetarium director at Liberty Science Center in New Jersey, aptly notes, “The biggest enemy of enjoying a meteor shower is the full moon.”
Meteor showers are a result of speedy space rocks colliding with Earth’s atmosphere, creating fiery trails as they burn up. These predictable annual events occur when Earth passes through dense streams of cosmic debris.
A supermoon, on the other hand, occurs when a full moon is at its closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit. This proximity makes it appear up to 14% larger and 30% brighter than the year’s faintest moon, though this difference can be subtle to the naked eye, as NASA explains.
While supermoons, like all full moons, are visible globally in clear night skies, the Quadrantids are primarily observable from the Northern Hemisphere. Both phenomena can be enjoyed without any special equipment.
For those eager to catch a glimpse of the Quadrantids, Jacque Benitez from the Morrison Planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences suggests venturing out in the early evening, away from city lights, to spot fireballs before the moon fully illuminates the sky. Another opportunity arises during the early dawn hours on Sunday.
To enhance your viewing experience, allow your eyes to adjust to the darkness and avoid looking at your phone. The meteors will appear as fast-moving white dots across the entire sky.
The Quadrantids, originating from debris of the asteroid 2003 EH1, are named after a constellation that is no longer officially recognized. The next significant meteor shower, the Lyrids, is anticipated in April.
Supermoons are a recurring event, happening a few times a year in clusters due to the moon’s orbital mechanics. Saturday night’s supermoon marks the end of a four-month streak that began in October. Stargazers will have to wait until late 2026 for the next supermoon appearance.