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Wolf Supermoon Peaks Jan. 3, Dimming Quadrantids

Bright moonlight from the year’s first supermoon will severely limit meteor counts during the Quadrantids peak.

Jupiter reaches opposition this month, looking its best, while the motions of its moons are fascinating to watch. This 2020 Hubble image shows Jupiter and its icy moon Europa. Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M. H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and the OPAL team
Three silhouetted wolves howling at a huge, bright moon
A quadrantid meteor flashes across the sky in January 2019. Credit: Tom Lee (Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
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Overview

  • Peak illumination occurs around 5:03 a.m. ET Saturday, with the full moon best seen at moonrise after sunset on Jan. 2–3 as it rises near bright Jupiter.
  • Occurring near lunar perigee and close to Earth’s perihelion, the Wolf Moon will appear up to about 14% larger and roughly 30% brighter than average, boosting glare and modestly elevating perigean tides.
  • The Quadrantids peak the evening of Jan. 3 through pre-dawn Jan. 4, but the American Meteor Society forecasts only a few visible meteors per hour for most observers, with brighter fireballs still possible.
  • Jupiter reaches opposition on Jan. 10, becoming an all‑night target that outshines every star and appears especially prominent beside Gemini.
  • Key 2026 highlights include an Aug. 12 total solar eclipse across eastern Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain, a favorable Perseids peak that same night, and the year’s closest full moon around Dec. 23–24.