“What might it feel like to stand on the Moon’s far side, gazing back at Earth?” With that question comes a rare overlap in early January 2026 when the first full moon of the year, the Wolf Moon (January) will be an extra supermoon, only a few hours before the Quadrantid meteor shower closes itself out. The moon will shine on the meteors and the moon and stars are going to be visible to skywatchers, but they will be able to see only the brightest ones.
The Wolf Moon will be at its brightest point of 5:03 a.m. EST on January 3 and its closeness to the earth increases its apparent size and brightness. It is the first of three moon phases in 2026, when the Moon is in full phase and lunar perigee, approximately 363300 km away Earth, to seem as much as 14% larger and 30% brighter than at apogee. The slightest swelling can be best observed along the horizon, at a moonrise or a moonset, when the atmospheric perspective enhances the effect. Although the term “supermoon” itself is not a scientific astronomical word, its tidal effect is not insignificant, as it can be observed that the tides are a little higher than usual.
The Quadrantid meteor shower takes place between the end of December and mid-January and reaches a maximum within a six-hour range during January 34. This has been possible because of the thin particle stream of the shower and the perpendicular crossing of the Earth on the stream. The meteors are a portion of fragments lost by asteroid 2003 EH1, which could be a slumbering comet, whose orbit has a period of 5.5 years and extends between the distances of the earth and Jupiter. When the sky is perfect with no clouds but in the dark sky the Quadrantids can reach more than 100 meteors per hour but with the moon 100% illumination this year the viewers will not see all than 10 meteors per hour in North America. Fireballs which are the brightest meteors still have the power to make holes in the glare to continue their trail a couple of seconds after disappearing.
The radiant of the shower is close to the handle of the Big Dipper of the constellation Booetes which was once a portion of the outmoded Quadrans Muralis. To see it at the best, experts suggest that you should look northeast with the Moon behind your back at midnight time and dawn when the radiant rises the highest. Below latitudes of 40 o N, the radiant is submerged in the horizon during early evening and can only be seen during the pre-dawn periods. Asians will experience higher rates at the peak, and with the radiant being far north, SoHem observers will be inactive.
This space collision coincides only weeks prior to NASA Artemis II mission, which has now been planned to launch as soon as February 2026. Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen will be made a 10-day trip around the Moon using the Orion spacecraft which will be launched with the help of a Space Launch System (SLS). The first crewed lunar flyby since Apollo 8 in 1968, it will test the life support, navigation and communications systems to the deep space on board Orion. The orbit will carry the crew thousands of miles further than the Moon to reach an altitude of a high of 8,889 km past the lunar surface, with a lunar surface at the peak of a return to Earth which will be gravity-assisted.
Artemis II is technically ready, which is a product of months of integration milestones: the Solid Rocket Boosters are stacked and the orange core stage is under final inspection and the four solar array wings on Orion are installed. The crew has been training mission segments in high-fidelity simulators up to high-Earth orbit emergency return procedures. After being stacked on top of the SLS, Orion will be subjected to system level tests, and then will roll to Launch Complex 39B where two dress rehearsals will take place followed by a launch.
The cultural resonance of the Wolf Moon is an added advantage to amateur astronomers. Its derivation is the howl of the wolf in European and Native American folklore in the winter, with names including: “moon of the bear” (Potawatomi) and “hard moon” (Lakota). These names portray the season signs incorporated in lunar phases whereby human experience is associated with the other heavenly rhythm.
Therefore, the night sky of January promises not just a visual feast, but an entry point to discovery: a supermoon that is so bright that it covers most of the meteor showers, an explosion of old debris that is the meteor shower, the promise of humans making another trip out of low Earth orbit. Watching the Moon during these evenings is not just astronomy–it is one way of heading into the next stage of the lunar exploration.
