Is there a meteor shower tonight?

At any given night, one or more showers are usually active. The live calendar above marks which showers are within their activity window tonight, with the next peak date, expected rate, and where to look in the sky.

What is the best meteor shower of 2026?

The Geminids on December 14, 2026 are the year's strongest reliable shower, with a peak ZHR near 150 and a New Moon two days earlier giving exceptionally dark skies.

How do I watch a meteor shower?

Find a dark site away from city lights, lie back, and let your eyes adapt for 20–30 minutes. Look about 40° away from the radiant, not directly at it, between local midnight and dawn.

Sky Watch · live

Sky Watch tonight.

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

Active tonight

Southern Delta Aquariids

Peak in 1d

Radiant in Aquarius · ZHR 25 · 41 km/s

Moon: moderate

Waxing gibbous Moon — best in the hours before dawn.

Perseids

Peak in 15d

Radiant in Perseus · ZHR 100 · 59 km/s

Moon: minimal

Thin waning crescent rises near dawn — near-ideal dark skies.

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.

Shower

Peak (local)

ZHR

Radiant

Speed

Moon

Quadrantids

Sat, Jan 3, 03:00 PM UTC

110

Boötes

41 km/s

moderate

Lyrids

Wed, Apr 22, 01:00 PM UTC

Lyra

49 km/s

minimal

Eta Aquariids

Wed, May 6, 07:00 AM UTC

Aquarius

66 km/s

severe

Southern Delta Aquariids

Thu, Jul 30, 12:00 AM UTC

Aquarius

41 km/s

moderate

Perseids

Wed, Aug 12, 08:00 PM UTC

100

Perseus

59 km/s

minimal

Draconids

Thu, Oct 8, 08:00 PM UTC

Draco

21 km/s

moderate

Orionids

Thu, Oct 22, 06:00 AM UTC

Orion

66 km/s

minimal

Leonids

Tue, Nov 17, 11:00 AM UTC

Leo

71 km/s

minimal

Geminids

Mon, Dec 14, 09:00 AM UTC

150

Gemini

35 km/s

minimal

Ursids

Tue, Dec 22, 06:00 PM UTC

Ursa Minor

33 km/s

minimal

Quadrantids

Sun, Jan 3, 09:00 PM UTC

110

Boötes

41 km/s

moderate

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

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.
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.
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.
Let your eyes adapt. Give yourself 20–30 minutes without phone screens or white light. Use a red flashlight if you need one.
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.
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…

Total Solar Eclipse

In 15d

Wed, Aug 12, 05:46 PM UTC

Totality across Greenland, western Iceland, and northern Spain. Partial across Europe, North Africa, and most of North America.

Visible across 3 regions

The headline eclipse of 2026. Totality lasts up to 2m 18s over northern Spain near sunset.

Partial Lunar Eclipse

In 30d

Fri, Aug 28, 04:13 AM UTC

Visible across the Americas, western Europe, western Africa, and the Pacific.

Visible across 5 regions

About 93% of the Moon's diameter is shadowed at maximum — a deep partial just shy of totality.

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

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).
Watch around local midnight. Geomagnetic activity peaks within a few hours of magnetic midnight.
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.
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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