Quadrantid meteor shower 2028

When and where to look

The best night is the night of 3 to 4 January. Best from the Northern Hemisphere in the hours before dawn. The peak is sharp, a few hours long, so the timing matters more than for any other shower.

The meteors seem to come from the radiant, in northern Boötes, below the handle of the Plough (the Big Dipper), but they appear all over the sky. Look about halfway up and 40 to 60 degrees away from it, where the trails are longest.

From	Radiant at its highest
London	88°
New York	82°
Delhi	70°
São Paulo	18°
Sydney	7°

The higher the radiant, the more meteors you see. When it is low, the ones you do see skim the horizon in long, slow trails.

The Moon

A 43% Moon sets during the night, leaving the hours before dawn dark.

Up to 80 an hour is the rate under a perfectly dark sky with the radiant overhead. From a typical dark site expect a third to a half of that; from a town, a handful.

What is happening

Every year the Earth crosses a stream of dust shed by the asteroid 2003 EH1, probably the husk of an old comet. The grains, most no bigger than sand, hit the top of the atmosphere at 41 km/s and burn up 80 to 120 km above the ground, each one a streak of light.

Because they all arrive on parallel paths, perspective makes them seem to spread from one point, the radiant, like a road vanishing into the distance. They are named after Quadrans Muralis, an old constellation that is now part of Boötes.

How to watch

• Get away from lights. A dark field or hill outside town shows several times as many meteors as a garden in the city.
• Give your eyes 20 to 30 minutes to adapt, and keep your phone screen dim or red.
• Lie back on a reclining chair or a mat and take in as much sky as you can. No telescope or binoculars: they show too little sky.
• Be patient. Meteors come in bursts and lulls; give it at least an hour.
• To photograph them, put a phone or camera on a tripod, point it about 45 degrees from the radiant and take long exposures one after another.

See it in 3D

The Earth, where the meteors fall, rendered live from today's real positions by our 3D viewer. Press play to load it here, or open the full viewer to fly anywhere in the solar system.

Load the live 3D view

Open the Earth in the 3D viewer →

Get a reminder

We email you a day or two before, with the time. Leave your email once and we send a code to confirm it; nothing else arrives unless you ask for it.

Questions

When do the Quadrantids peak in 2028?

The peak is predicted for 4 January 2028 at 09:34 UTC. The shower is active from 28 December to 12 January, so the nights either side are worth watching too; the best is the night of 3 to 4 January, after midnight.

How many meteors will I see?

Up to about 80 an hour under a perfectly dark sky with the radiant overhead. Most watchers see a third to a half of that from a dark site, fewer from towns.

Will the Moon spoil it?

A 43% Moon sets during the night, leaving the hours before dawn dark.

Where should I look?

Anywhere, though meteors appear longest 40 to 60 degrees from the radiant, in northern Boötes, below the handle of the Plough (the Big Dipper). Look about halfway up the darkest part of the sky.

Do I need a telescope?

No. Meteors are best with the naked eye: binoculars and telescopes show far too little sky.

When are the Quadrantids next?

3 January 2029, with the peak at 15:44 UTC and a 89% Moon.

More in the sky

Every eclipse, meteor shower and planet at opposition, or the whole calendar. Tonight's planets are on what is visible tonight.

Sources

• International Meteor Organization: meteor shower calendar
• Wikipedia: the Quadrantids
• NASA: meteors and meteorites
• The times and positions on this page come from our own sky calendar, built on the sources above, the same one the 3D viewer runs on.