Meteor Shower Tonight

Updated October 2026 by Elena Stone

See whether a meteor shower is active tonight where you live, how many meteors to expect, which way to look and when to go outside. Tap Change to set your city.

Is there a meteor shower tonight?

Some shower is active on most nights of the year, but only about a dozen give more than a few meteors an hour. The tool above checks all of the major ones for tonight’s date and your location. If none is near its peak, it shows the next one and how long until it starts.

A shower that is “active” is not always worth staying up for. A few days away from the peak, most showers give 2 to 5 meteors an hour, which is close to the number of random meteors you would see on any dark night. The rating in the tool (Great, Good, Fair, Poor) already takes this into account, along with the Moon and the time of night.

When is the next meteor shower?

The major meteor showers happen on the same dates every year, because Earth crosses the same trails of comet dust at the same point in its orbit. In date order, the big ones are:

• Quadrantids: January 3 to 4
• Lyrids: April 22 to 23
• Eta Aquariids: May 5 to 6
• Southern Delta Aquariids: July 30 to 31
• Perseids: August 12 to 13
• Draconids: October 8 to 9
• Orionids: October 21 to 22
• Taurids: November 5 and November 12
• Leonids: November 17 to 18
• Geminids: December 13 to 14
• Ursids: December 21 to 22

The exact peak can shift by a day from one year to the next. The countdown in the tool and the calendar below use the peak times published by the International Meteor Organization for each year.

Meteor shower calendar 2026 and 2027

The table lists each shower’s active dates, its peak night, the most meteors per hour you could see under a perfectly dark sky, and how much of the Moon is lit on the peak night. A Moon less than 30% lit does little harm. A Moon more than 70% lit hides most of the faint meteors while it is up.

Where to look for a meteor shower

Each shower’s meteors seem to fly out of one small area of the sky. Astronomers call it the radiant, and the shower is named after the constellation it sits in: the Perseids come from Perseus, the Geminids from Gemini. The tool shows the compass direction and height of that point for your location.

You do not need to stare straight at it. Meteors can appear anywhere in the sky, and the ones far from the source point have the longest trails. The best plan is to face roughly toward the source point, then look about halfway up the sky and take in as much of it as you can. Lying back on a reclining chair or a blanket is the easiest way to do this.

The height of the source point decides how many meteors you see. When it is below the horizon you see almost none. When it is halfway up the sky you see about 70% of the possible number. That is why most showers are best after midnight, when their source point has climbed higher.

How the Moon affects a meteor shower

Moonlight brightens the whole sky, and a brighter sky hides the faint meteors, which are most of them. A full Moon can cut the count by half or more. A thin crescent makes almost no difference.

What matters is whether the Moon is up while you watch. A half-lit Moon that sets at midnight leaves the rest of the night dark, and that is often the best part of the night anyway. The tool shows when the Moon rises or sets tonight and builds that into the best time to watch. For the Moon on its own, see today’s Moon phase.

How to watch a meteor shower

• Get away from lights. A dark backyard beats a lit street. A park, beach or country road outside town is better still. Our guide to the best dark sky locations lists places by state.
• Give your eyes 20 to 30 minutes. Your night vision builds up slowly. One look at a phone screen at full brightness resets it, so turn the brightness down or use a red light.
• Watch for at least an hour. Meteors come in clusters with quiet gaps between them. A 10-minute look can miss them all.
• Use only your eyes. Telescopes and binoculars show a tiny piece of the sky, and meteors are too fast and too spread out to catch that way.
• Dress for the cold. You will sit still for an hour or more, and even summer nights get chilly after midnight.

The numbers in the tool assume a dark country sky. In a suburb you will see about half of them. In a city you will see only the brightest few.

The major meteor showers of the year

Quadrantids (early January)

The Quadrantids can match the Perseids at their best, with up to 80 meteors an hour, but the peak lasts only about six hours. If it falls in daylight where you live, you miss it. The meteors come from near the handle of the Big Dipper, and the shower is seen almost only from the Northern Hemisphere. The best time is the hours before dawn on January 3 or 4.

Lyrids (April)

The Lyrids are the oldest recorded meteor shower: Chinese observers described them in 687 BC. They give about 18 meteors an hour at the peak around April 22, coming from near the bright star Vega. The hours before dawn are best. They come from the dust of Comet Thatcher, which last passed the Sun in 1861.

Eta Aquariids (May)

The Eta Aquariids are dust from Halley’s Comet. They are the best shower of the year for the Southern Hemisphere, where 40 to 60 meteors an hour are possible before dawn around May 6. From the northern United States and Europe the source point barely rises before sunrise, so counts there are closer to 10 an hour. The meteors are fast and often leave glowing trails.

Southern Delta Aquariids (late July)

This shower peaks around July 31 with about 25 meteors an hour. It is best from the Southern Hemisphere and the southern United States, in the hours after midnight. It overlaps with the start of the Perseids, so late July nights often show meteors from both.

Alpha Capricornids (late July)

The Alpha Capricornids give only about 5 meteors an hour, but many of them are slow, bright fireballs. They peak around July 31 and are visible from both hemispheres. Their source point is up by late evening, which makes this one of the few showers worth watching before midnight.

Perseids (August)

The Perseids are the most watched meteor shower of the year: up to 100 meteors an hour on the night of August 12 to 13, on warm summer nights in the Northern Hemisphere. The shower is active from mid-July to late August, so you can catch some meteors for weeks around the peak. They are dust from Comet Swift-Tuttle. The source point rises in the northeast in the evening and is highest just before dawn.

Draconids (early October)

Most years the Draconids give fewer than 10 meteors an hour. Some years they surge past 100 an hour, as in 2011 and 2018. Unlike most showers, they are best in the early evening, because their source point in Draco is highest after sunset. They are dust from Comet Giacobini-Zinner and are seen best from the Northern Hemisphere.

Orionids (October)

The Orionids are the second shower made of Halley’s Comet dust. They peak around October 21 with about 20 meteors an hour, among the fastest of any shower at 66 kilometers per second. The source point sits near the red star Betelgeuse in Orion and rises around 11 p.m., so the best hours are from 2 a.m. until dawn. Both hemispheres can see them.

Taurids (October and November)

The Taurids come in two branches. The Southern Taurids peak around November 5, with a smaller early peak around October 13, and the Northern Taurids peak around November 12. Each gives only about 5 meteors an hour, but the shower is known for slow, bright fireballs and runs from late September to early December. They are dust from Comet Encke, and the source point in Taurus is up most of the night.

Leonids (November)

The Leonids give about 15 meteors an hour around November 17, from a source point in the head of Leo that rises around midnight. They are known for their meteor storms. In 1833 and 1966, observers in North America saw thousands of meteors an hour. Those storms come roughly every 33 years, when Comet Tempel-Tuttle passes close to the Sun. The next strong returns are not expected before the 2030s.

Geminids (December)

The Geminids are the strongest meteor shower of the year, with up to 150 meteors an hour under a dark sky on the night of December 13 to 14. They are also the easiest to watch. The source point near the star Castor rises in the early evening, so meteors start by 9 or 10 p.m. and the best hours are around 2 a.m. The meteors are slower than most and often bright. Unlike most showers, the Geminids come from an asteroid, 3200 Phaethon, not a comet. They are seen best from the Northern Hemisphere, but the Southern Hemisphere sees a good number too.

Ursids (December)

The Ursids peak around December 22 with about 10 meteors an hour. Their source point is near the Little Dipper, close to the North Star, so it never sets for most of the Northern Hemisphere and the shower can be watched all night. It cannot be seen from most of the Southern Hemisphere.

More about meteor showers

• Meteor showers by month: every shower active in each month of the year
• What causes a meteor shower
• Types of meteor showers
• Annual meteor showers
• Moon phase today: tonight’s Moon and the next full moon
• Full moon calendar

Frequently asked questions

Shower dates, peak times and rates come from the International Meteor Organization’s Meteor Shower Calendar and Working List of Visual Meteor Showers. Moon and sky positions are calculated for your location. City data from GeoNames.