The Most Amazing Quadrantid Meteor Shower Photos

The Quadrantid Meteor Shower!

Jeff Berkes

The Quadrantid meteor shower is always the first display of the year, peaking between Jan. 2 and 4, and can be a dazzling one to behold for lucky stargazers. See the best Quadrantid meteor photos by our readers and more over the years here! This Photo: Astrophotographer Jeff Berkes took this photo Jan. 4, 2012 from the Florida Keys, capturing meteors and the ethereal zodiacal light.

A Slowpoke Quadrantid

NASA/MSFC/Meteoroid Environments Office/Bill Cooke and Danielle Moser

The image shows the meteor's path captured by an allsky color camera, also located at the Marshall Center.

Star Streaks and a Meteor

Roberto Porto

This long-exposure photo by Roberto Porto shows the bright arcs of star trails and a bright Quadrantid meteor in the predawn sky over Tenerife in Spain's Canary Islands during the 2012 shower.

Suspected Quadrantid

Brian Emfinger

Brian Emfinger took this photograph of a possible Quadrantid meteor on Jan. 2, 2012, in Ozark, Arkansas. He referred to this image as a "cropped star trail stack."

Off the Florida Keys

Jeff Berkes

Astrophotographer Jeff Berkes took this photo of the Quadrantid meteor shower on Jan. 4, 2012.

In False Color

NASA/MEO/B. Cooke

False-color image of a rare early Quadrantid, captured by a NASA meteor camera in 2010.

Quadrantid Meteor Over Ohio

John Chumack

Astrophotographer John Chumack sent in his photo of a Quadrantid meteor taken over his house in Dayton, OH, on Dec. 31, 2012.

A Bright Streak

Brian Emfinger

Brian Emfinger took this photograph on Jan. 2, 2012, in Ozark, Arkansas. He said: "The radiant is very, very close to the Quadrantid but I'm not 100% sure it is indeed a Quadrantid."

Quadrantid Over Maurice River, NJ

Jack Fusco

Astrophotographer Jack Fusco caught the Quadrantid meteor shower in Maurice River, NJ, at the East Point Lighthouse, January 2012. He says this image consists of "a total of 509 frames stacked to create star trails showing the meteors through the trails. The trails were taken from 3 am until just after 6 am which accounts for the early twilight light in the right side of the frame."

Meteors Over Tucson

Sean Parker

Astrophotographer Sean Parker produced this image of Quandrantid meteors over Tucson, AZ, on Jan. 3, 2013. He writes: "The boneyard [aircraft graveyard] is run by the [Davis-Monthan] Air Force base which requires clearance, and is surrounded by 10-foot barbed wire fences. But fortunately I have a Jeep and a tall tripod – so I drove around numerous spots looking for a place I could pull … close to the fence and take pictures from on top. And I found one."

Quadrantid in Connecticut

Scott Tully

Astrophotographer Scott Tully sends us a shot of a Quadrantid meteor taken over the northwest hills of Connecticut on January 3, 2012.

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Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.