Sky event · 4 January 2027

Quadrantids 2027, and Venus at its greatest elongation

The Quadrantids peak on 4 January 2027, 03:30 UT, with up to about 80 meteors an hour under a perfect dark sky, coming from Bootes. The Moon is about 12 percent lit and waning at the hour we state it for (4 January 2027, 03:00 UT).

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The facts

Peak, computed

4 January 2027, 03:30 UT

Rate in a perfect sky

up to about 80 an hour

Radiant

in Bootes

Parent body

asteroid 2003 EH1

Moon at 03:00 UT on 4 January 2027

12 percent lit, waning

Venus, greatest western elongation

3 January 2027, 17:56 UT, 46.95°

Where to look from your place

Choose a city to see what this looks like from there. With scripts off, the map's Tonight view works out the same for the place you set in it.

What to expect

The rate quoted for a shower (its ZHR, 80 for the Quadrantids) is what one observer would count in an hour under a perfect dark sky with the radiant overhead: from a town, or with the radiant low, it is a fraction. Lie back, look at a wide patch of sky away from lights, give your eyes twenty minutes, and expect meteors from any part of the sky, all tracing back to the radiant.

What the Moon will do

At 03:00 UT on 4 January 2027 the Moon is 12 percent lit and waning. That is for anywhere on Earth; whether it is up from your place, and how high, is in the box above.

Venus the same morning

Venus reaches its greatest western elongation on 3 January 2027, 17:56 UT: 46.95° from the Sun, as far from it in the morning sky as it ever gets. It rises before the Sun and is the brightest point in the east before dawn.

Sources

• IMO Meteor Shower Calendar 2027 (rates, radiant, activity), read 7 October 2026

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