Quadrantids 2027: where and when to see the meteor shower

When: the night of 3 to 4 January, peak in the early hours of the 4th

The maximum is set for 4 January 2027 at 03:25 UT, which is 4:25 am Central European Time in Paris. This value comes from the 2027 calendar of the International Meteor Organization (IMO), which gives an uncertainty of about two and a half hours. Sunrise in Paris that day is at 8:43 am, so the peak falls well before dawn. For a reader in London, 03:25 UT is 3:25 am (UK time is GMT in January); in New York, it is 10:25 pm on 3 January.

Because the uncertainty covers several hours, don’t aim for a single minute. Stay outside from 3 am until the dark sky ends. The shower’s activity runs from 28 December 2026 to 12 January 2027, but the strong peak only lasts a few hours.

Source: IMO, Meteor Shower Calendar 2027 (imo.net); Star Walk (French edition, starwalk.space); Astrobro; EarthSky (earthsky.org), checked on 25 October 2026. Paris times: UT + 1 hour.

How many meteors: 80 per hour on paper, 30 to 50 from the countryside

The number everyone quotes is the ZHR, short for zenithal hourly rate. It is the number of meteors an observer would see in one hour under a perfectly dark sky, with the radiant straight overhead. In practice, the radiant’s height, the transparency of the sky and the fatigue of your eyes all bring the count down.

The IMO uses a reference ZHR of 80 for 2027, with an accepted range of 60 to 200. The higher values are ceilings, not forecasts.

Source: IMO, 2027 calendar; Star Walk (French edition, starwalk.space); EarthSky (earthsky.org); Astrobro; eMeteorNews, article of 19 June 2025. Checked on 25 October 2026.

The Quadrantids play out over a few hours, unlike the Geminids 2026, whose peak lasts longer. For this winter shower, the night matters more than the week.

The Moon: a very thin crescent, and a new Moon on 7 January

At the peak, the Moon is a very thin waning crescent, lit by about 12%. Astrobro gives 12%, Universal Time Date about 13% at the end of the night, and another source a range of 9 to 15%. The new Moon falls on 7 January 2027 at 20:24 UTC, three days after the peak.

Its moonrise in Paris, however, is not settled. Universal Time Date gives 3:56 am on 4 January, while Astrobro gives between 5:30 and 6:45 am depending on the city. Check the exact time the day before in an ephemeris app, using your precise location.

Source: cited sources, checked on 25 October 2026.

Where to observe in France: get out of the cities and pick a dark-sky reserve

Location matters as much as the date. In town you will count about ten meteors an hour; in the countryside the count climbs noticeably. The International Dark-Sky Reserve label (RICE), awarded by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), recognises the quality of the night sky. It is not a tourism label: it guarantees neither good weather nor access, and several reserves only open their sites in summer.

Alpes Azur Mercantour: the reserve in the hills behind Nice

Label since December 2019 3,700 km² according to the IDA Winter: not documented

The Alpes Azur Mercantour reserve received its label in December 2019, for an area of 3,700 km² according to the IDA’s extension announcement (checked on 25 October 2026). We found no winter observing programme for January 2027, so the park is the right contact before you go.

Key points

• Ask the park which observation points are open and which access roads stay open in snow.
• Check the parking and the night drive before the big night.

Pixidia tip: a dark sky in the mountains won’t make up for a closed road. Confirm access the evening before, not on the morning itself.

If you are in Nice on 3 or 4 January, a day trip can fill part of your day, with no link to the sky: a half-day to Monaco, Monte-Carlo and Eze, in a small group. It won’t show the Quadrantids, and we found no night-time observation tour on Viator for those dates.

Monaco, Monte-Carlo and Eze Village Small Group Half-Day Tour From €79 per person (based on 2 adults), checked on 25 October 2026 for 3 and 4 January 2027 · Rated 4.8 out of 5, from 1857 Viator reviews

View the tour on Viator

Vercors: France’s fifth reserve, with an observatory in the Trièves

Label since July 2023 1,600 km², 39 municipalities €6 adult (summer 2026)

The Vercors became France’s fifth reserve, and the 22nd in the world, in July 2023, according to the Parc’s 2023 press kit. The Trièves observatory, in Gresse-en-Vercors, announces summer evenings with booking: €6 for an adult and €4 for a child under 16 (summer 2026 announcement, unidivers.fr, checked on 25 October 2026). No winter schedule has been published so far.

Pixidia tip: a summer evening announcement tells you nothing about a winter one. Wait for written confirmation from the observatory.

The table below compares France’s reserves, their label and their status at the time of our research. It does not name a winner: none has confirmed a programme for 3 or 4 January 2027.

Source: park and reserve pages, Tourisme Occitanie listings, Observatoire du Trièves announcements (unidivers.fr) and IDA press releases, checked on 25 October 2026. Dates are those of the press releases we checked.

To compare with another shower, our Perseids 2026 guide covers the same type of site, with summer sessions you should not confuse with winter evenings.

Where to look in the sky: Boötes, and don’t stare at the radiant

The meteors all seem to come from one point, the radiant, which lies in the constellation Boötes. The IMO’s coordinates for it are a right ascension of 230 degrees and a declination of +49 degrees. The name « Quadrantids » comes from Quadrans Muralis, a constellation dropped in 1922.

Don’t look straight at the radiant: the streaks show up everywhere in the sky. Astrobro and Sterngucker advise lying back, head pointing south, to cover as much sky as possible. The radiant’s height depends on latitude: in Paris, a rough calculation puts it at around 44 degrees at 4:25 am. In Tenerife (28° N), it barely reaches 20 degrees at the same time.

Where the shower comes from: asteroid 2003 EH1

The parent of the Quadrantids is asteroid 2003 EH1, discovered on 6 March 2003 by the LONEOS programme, which NASA presents as the source of the shower (science.nasa.gov, checked on 25 October 2026). Its nature is still debated: several researchers see an old comet nucleus, and this article does not settle the question.

A typical night: from the first dark hours to dawn

This plan assumes a clear sky and a dark site.

Before midnight. Settle in without white light, with a reclining chair, blankets, a hat, gloves and a hot drink. Skip the alcohol: according to Astrobro, it disrupts your eyes’ adaptation and does not keep you warm.

From 1 am to 3 am. Let your eyes adjust to the dark for 20 to 30 minutes, without a screen. A few meteors may appear, but the count stays modest.

From 3 am to 4:30 am. The useful window opens. The radiant climbs, the number of meteors rises, and this is the moment to stay outside even when the cold pushes you to go in. Look wide and sweep the sky zone by zone.

Around 4:25 am, then until dawn. That is the peak forecast by the IMO. Keep watching until the dark sky ends, because the maximum could shift by two and a half hours.

Daytime or dusk? No, not in practice. The Sun rises in Paris at 8:43 am on 4 January (Calendriergratuit.fr), and the radiant is too low early in the evening to produce many meteors. None of the sources we checked gives a dusk time, so the useful window is the night, roughly 3 am to 6 am depending on where you are.

To set up your kit and habits before January, the Leonids 2026 offer a rehearsal in November.

Depending on your profile: first time, family, small budget, photographer

For a first time. You don’t need any equipment. You observe with the naked eye, and a telescope narrows the field of view. Pick a site where you can park and walk back without a white torch.

With family. Plan an evening from 3 to 5 am, which covers most of the peak, and bring something warm for the car. A lower-altitude backup spot stops you from heading home empty-handed if clouds roll in.

On a budget. Observing itself is free. The only possible costs are the drive, a guided outing or an observatory visit.

For photographers. A long exposure on a tripod, a fast lens and a remote release are enough. Take plenty of shots: most frames contain no meteor at all.

Mistakes to avoid

• Aiming for 3 January. The night is 3 to 4 January, but the peak falls on the 4th in the early hours, around 4:25 am.
• Expecting 120 meteors an hour. That is the ceiling Star Walk quotes. The IMO forecast is 80, and the rural count tends to sit between 25 and 60.
• Leaving without confirming the site. The Pic du Midi has not published its winter schedule, and the AstroLab on Mont Lozère only observes in summer.
• Relying on a screen’s light. A phone on normal brightness wipes out your eyes’ adaptation in seconds.

What other guides don’t tell you

Most general guides read alike. Here are four points where the official sources or the reference publications add information that is badly phrased, or missing, elsewhere.

• The official ZHR is 80, not 120. Star Walk quotes 120, and EarthSky gives 110 to 120 in theory. The IMO entry for 2027 gives 80, with a range of 60 to 200 (IMO, 2027 calendar; checked on 25 October 2026).
• In 2025, the peak was missed from Europe. The maximum happened over the Pacific, with a ZHR of 60 to 70, and arrived 3.4 hours earlier than predicted (eMeteorNews, article of 19 June 2025; checked on 25 October 2026). The 2027 forecast could therefore shift too.
• No French reserve has published an observing programme for January 2027. The 2026 season at the Pic du Midi ends on 1 November 2026, and the AstroLab on Mont Lozère only observes in summer (Tourisme Occitanie and AstroLab announcements; checked on 25 October 2026).
• France has at least seven RICE reserves. The Landes de Gascogne (early 2025, France’s 6th reserve) and the Morvan (2025, France’s 7th and the 24th in the world) join the sites that older guides still list (press kits, checked on 25 October 2026).

Practical information: 2026 prices, access and weather

No 2027 price had been published at the time of this research. The prices below are from the 2026 season and are there to give you a sense of scale, not to book with.

Source: Tourisme Occitanie (Pic du Midi and Mont Lozère listings), Observatoire du Trièves announcements (unidivers.fr), checked on 25 October 2026. These prices do not apply to 2027.

Weather. None of the sources we checked gives a reliable frequency of clear nights in January in France. Météo-France describes winters dominated by anticyclones and frequent fog in the north, with no percentage given. Check the forecast the day before, and plan a lower-altitude alternative if the sky clouds over.