US EditionThe year's first meteor shower and supermoon clash in January skies
Skygazers may see fewer than 10 meteors per hour during the Quadrantid peak due to bright moonlight from the January supermoon, NASA said.
- On Friday night into Saturday morning, the Quadrantid meteor shower peaks and will coincide with the year's first supermoon, reducing visible meteors from around 25 to less than 10 per hour.
- Explaining the clash: meteor streaks and moon brightness; supermoons are full moons near perigee that NASA says can look 14% bigger and 30% brighter, affecting visibility.
- Mike Shanahan warned that the full moon hampers meteor viewing, while Jacque Benitez advised observers to watch early-dawn Sunday from dark skies in the Northern Hemisphere.
- Saturday night's event ends a four-month supermoon streak that started in October, and there will not be another supermoon until the end of 2026.
- The Quadrantids come from debris of asteroid 2003 EH1 and are named for a constellation no longer recognized; skywatchers can next look to the Lyrids in April.
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The first Supermoon of the year and a meteor shower will coincide in the January skies, but the light of one could overshadow the other. The rain of quadrantite meteors will peak between Friday night and Saturday morning, according to the American Meteor Society. In dark skies during the peak, sky observers usually see about 25 meteors per hour, but this time they will probably see less than ten per hour due to the light of the Supermoon on Satu…
Associated Press News
The year's first meteor shower and supermoon clash in January skies
The year’s first supermoon and meteor shower will compete for dominance in January skies. The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks Friday night into Saturday morning, but fewer than 10 meteors will be visible per hour due to light from Saturday's supermoon.
January 2026 will concentrate several of the most outstanding astronomical phenomena of the beginning of the year.The first Supermoon, the rain of stars Quadrantidas and the visit of two comets will mark the celestial calendar of the first weeks, with events visible from Costa Rica and other points of the northern and southern hemisphere.The main attraction will be the first Supermoon of the year, which will coincide with the full Moon on Januar…
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