The bright Moon sometimes affects meteor showers. But it won’t interfere with this winter’s Quadrantids, which peak around January 3–4.

　　

　　Shooting Stars for the New Year

　　One of the first highlights on the 2025 astronomy calendar is the annual Quadrantid meteor shower. The popular name for a meteor is a “shooting star.”

　　The Quadrantids are active from around December 28 to January 12, with a narrow peak period around January 3–4.

　　During the peak, up to 80 meteors per hour may be visible under good conditions. This meteor shower favors observers in the Northern Hemisphere.

　　Why the narrow peak period? It’s because meteor showers are created by trails of debris in space called meteor streams—for the Quadrantids, the stream is narrow.

　　Meteors Versus the Moon

　　In terms of the Moon’s brightness, the Quadrantids are one of the better meteor showers in 2025.

　　The following table lists nine of the major meteor showers during the year.

　　The second column gives the approximate peak dates of the shower. These dates can vary depending on your time zone—in this table, the dates are given in UTC.

　　The third column gives the Moon’s illumination at midnight on the peak night (again, in UTC).

　　Moon Illumination Around Meteor Shower Peaks, 2025

　　

Shower	Peak (Approx)	Moon Illumination
Quadrantids	Jan 3–4	19%
Lyrids	Apr 22–23	30%
Eta Aquarids	May 5–6	64%
Perseids	Aug 12–13	84%
Draconids	Oct 8–9	95%
Orionids	Oct 21–22	0%
Leonids	Nov 17–18	5%
Geminids	Dec 13–14	30%
Ursids	Dec 22–23	8%

　　Winners and Losers in 2025

　　We can see from the table that the Moon will only be about 19% illuminated around the peak of the Quadrantids. This will be a Waxing Crescent Moon that sets a few hours after sunset.

　　Alas, later in the year, the Moon will interfere with the Perseids, which is the big summer meteor shower for skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere. There’s a Full Moon on August 9, and the Moon’s face will still be about 84% illuminated when the Perseids reach their peak a few days later.

　　On a more positive note, the Moon phase will be ideal for this year’s Orionids—the peak of this shower coincides neatly with an invisible New Moon.

　　How Did the Quadrantids Get Their Name?

　　A meteor shower appears to emerge from a particular region of the sky called the radiant.

　　In the case of the Quadrantids, the radiant lies among a group stars that used to be known as the constellation Quadrans Muralis—hence the Quadrantid meteor shower.

　　Today, Quadrans Muralis is not one of the 88 constellations officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union. Instead, we now say that the radiant lies in the constellation Boötes.