Observations of the Quadrantid meteor shower from 2008 to 2012: Orbits and emission spectra

•We analyse the activity of the Quadrantid meteor shower from 2008 to 2012.•A large set of 85 Quadrantid orbits is presented.•Four Quadrantid emission spectra are discussed.•The tensile strength of Quadrantid meteoroids is estimated. The activity of the Quadrantids in January during several years (2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012) has been investigated in the framework of the SPanish Meteor Network (SPMN). For this purpose, an array of high-sensitivity CCD video devices and CCD all-sky cameras have been used to obtain multi-station observations of these meteors. These allowed to obtain precise radiant and orbital information about this meteoroid stream. This paper presents a large set of orbital data (namely, 85 orbits) of Quadrantid meteoroids. Most meteors produced by these particles were recorded during the activity peak of this shower. Besides, we discuss four Quadrantid emission spectra. The tensile strength of Quadrantid meteoroids has been also obtained.