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☄️ The Quadrantids meteor shower

A strong peak, but it lasts only a few hours. Active from 28 December to 12 January.

The next peak · in 66 days

4 January 2027 at 03:22 UTC

Up to 80 meteors an hour under a dark sky. The Moon is 12% lit that night. A dark sky: a good year to watch.

The best hours are usually after midnight and before dawn, on the night of the peak and the night before.

The next few years

4 January 2028 at 09:31 UTCMoon 44% lit · Some moonlight, so fewer faint meteors.
3 January 2029 at 15:40 UTCMoon 89% lit · Bright moonlight hides all but the brightest meteors.
3 January 2030 at 21:49 UTCMoon 0% lit · A dark sky: a good year to watch.

At its peak: Up to 80 meteors an hour under a dark sky
Active: 28 December to 12 January
Seems to come from: Boötes
Where to see it: Only from the northern half of Earth
Made by: Dust from the asteroid 2003 EH1, probably a dead comet

How to watch

Get away from city lights if you can, and give your eyes 20 minutes to get used to the dark. Don’t look at your phone.
Lie back and look at a wide stretch of sky. Meteors appear anywhere, though their trails point back to Boötes.
No telescope or binoculars: they show too little of the sky. Your eyes are best.
“Up to 80 an hour” is for a perfectly dark sky. From a town, expect a fraction of that.

Other meteor showers

All of them

Lyrids Eta Aquariids Perseids Orionids Leonids Geminids Ursids

Peak dates from the International Meteor Organization’s list of showers, worked out for each year; the Moon worked out with Astronomy Engine. Times are UTC until the page has loaded, then your own time zone.