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Sky Watch · live

Sky Watch tonight.

Meteor showers and eclipses — what's visible from where you are.

Active tonight

No major shower is within its activity window right now. The next peak is the Draconids in 26 days.

What this means
A shower is “active” when Earth is passing through any part of its meteoroid stream. Rates are usually a fraction of the peak ZHR until the nominal maximum date, then fall off quickly.
2026 calendar · IMO working list
Major showers visible from Earth, ordered by peak date.

Quadrantids

ZHR 110
Peak Sat, Jan 3, 03:00 PM UTC
Radiant: Boötes
Speed: 41 km/s
Hemisphere: north
Moon: moderate

Sharp peak only ~6 hours wide. Pre-dawn from the northern hemisphere is best.

Lyrids

ZHR 18
Peak Wed, Apr 22, 01:00 PM UTC
Radiant: Lyra
Speed: 49 km/s
Hemisphere: north
Moon: minimal

Occasional bright fireballs. Watch the second half of the night.

Eta Aquariids

ZHR 50
Peak Wed, May 6, 07:00 AM UTC
Radiant: Aquarius
Speed: 66 km/s
Hemisphere: south
Moon: severe

Strongly favours the southern hemisphere and tropical latitudes.

Southern Delta Aquariids

ZHR 25
Peak Thu, Jul 30, 12:00 AM UTC
Radiant: Aquarius
Speed: 41 km/s
Hemisphere: south
Moon: moderate

Broad plateau of activity overlaps with the early Perseids.

Perseids

ZHR 100
Peak Wed, Aug 12, 08:00 PM UTC
Radiant: Perseus
Speed: 59 km/s
Hemisphere: north
Moon: minimal

Most popular northern shower. Plenty of bright meteors and fireballs.

Draconids

ZHR 10
Peak Thu, Oct 8, 08:00 PM UTC
Radiant: Draco
Speed: 21 km/s
Hemisphere: north
Moon: moderate

Variable shower. Best viewed in the evening, not pre-dawn.

Orionids

ZHR 20
Peak Thu, Oct 22, 06:00 AM UTC
Radiant: Orion
Speed: 66 km/s
Hemisphere: both
Moon: minimal

Fast meteors with persistent trains. Visible worldwide.

Leonids

ZHR 15
Peak Tue, Nov 17, 11:00 AM UTC
Radiant: Leo
Speed: 71 km/s
Hemisphere: both
Moon: minimal

Fastest of the major showers. Storm years are decades apart.

Geminids

ZHR 150
Peak Mon, Dec 14, 09:00 AM UTC
Radiant: Gemini
Speed: 35 km/s
Hemisphere: both
Moon: minimal

The year's most reliable shower. Bright, slow, colourful meteors.

Ursids

ZHR 10
Peak Tue, Dec 22, 06:00 PM UTC
Radiant: Ursa Minor
Speed: 33 km/s
Hemisphere: north
Moon: minimal

Northern circumpolar radiant — visible all night from mid-northern latitudes.

Quadrantids

ZHR 110
Peak Sun, Jan 3, 09:00 PM UTC
Radiant: Boötes
Speed: 41 km/s
Hemisphere: north
Moon: moderate

First major shower of 2027. Sharp 6-hour peak.

What this means
ZHR is the Zenithal Hourly Rate — the number of meteors a single observer would see per hour under a perfectly dark sky with the radiant overhead. Real-world counts are typically 30–60% of ZHR.
Source · International Meteor Organization (IMO) · IAU Meteor Data CenterCalendar · 2026
How to watch a meteor shower
  1. Pick the right night. Use the calendar above and aim for the night of, or the night before, the listed peak. Activity is strongest in the hours after local midnight.
  2. Escape light pollution. Drive to a dark site at least 30 minutes from city glow. A Bortle 4 sky or darker roughly doubles what you'll see compared to suburban skies.
  3. Check the Moon. A bright Moon above the horizon can erase two-thirds of the visible meteors. Watch the windows before moonrise or after moonset.
  4. Let your eyes adapt. Give yourself 20–30 minutes without phone screens or white light. Use a red flashlight if you need one.
  5. Look 40° from the radiant. Meteors appear all over the sky but leave longer trails away from the radiant. Lie flat so you can see a wide field at once.
  6. Be patient. Even at the Geminid peak you'll see clusters separated by lulls. Plan for at least an hour outside.
2026 eclipses · solar & lunar
Detecting your location…

No more eclipses scheduled in this window.

What this means
Solar eclipses are only visible from a narrow path on Earth's dayside. Lunar eclipses are visible from the entire night hemisphere at once. Visibility above is approximate, by continent — for exact local timing and partial-phase coverage, check NASA's eclipse pages.
Source · NASA Eclipse Web Site · Location · IP geolocation (ipwho.is)Catalog · 2026
Northern lights · live forecast
Real-time auroral oval forecast from NOAA's OVATION model, driven by upstream solar wind observations at L1 and summarized by the planetary K-index.
…
NOAA OVATION aurora forecast — southern hemisphere
NOAA OVATION · Southern hemisphere · 30–90 min forecast
Your sky
Detecting your location…
How to read it

The green band on the map is the auroral oval — where aurora is actively occurring overhead. If you are within ~500 km of the band's equatorward edge, you can often see aurora low on the poleward horizon.

Higher Kp pushes the oval to lower latitudes. Kp 5+ brings aurora into the northern US and northern Europe; Kp 7+ can reach the mid-latitudes.

How to watch the northern lights
  1. Find a dark northern horizon. Aurora at your latitude often hugs the horizon — pick a site with no trees, hills, or city glow to the north (south, if you're in the southern hemisphere).
  2. Watch around local midnight. Geomagnetic activity peaks within a few hours of magnetic midnight.
  3. Let your eyes adapt for 20 minutes. Faint aurora looks grey to the eye but green to a camera — a 2–10 s phone exposure will confirm it.
  4. Refresh this page. The OVATION map updates every few minutes; substorms can brighten the oval suddenly.
Source · NOAA SWPC OVATION model · Planetary K-indexUpdated · ~every 5 min
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