The UK is set to be illuminated by the first meteor shower of 2022 in early January.

Active from December 12 to January 12, the Quadrantid meteor shower is expected to be at its most visible on January 3.

For the best view, stargazers are urged to look to the skies after dusk.

At its peak, the shower can produce a rate of 118 meteors per hour.

At non-peak times, there will be fewer meteors over the country, but the ones that do appear will be long-lived meteors which will travel across a wide area of sky.

A meteor shower occurs when the Earth passes through debris which has been left behind by comets and asteroids.