Will I see a meteor shower?
How many shooting stars you'll really see from your city, at what time, with the moon and the clouds taken into account. Every shower of the next twelve months.
Geminids: night of 13–14 December 2026
The richest shower of the year: bright, slow meteors from about 22:00 on. The radiant is high all night from the northern hemisphere.
How many will I see?
Search your city above or use your location.
Every shower, the next twelve months
Meteors an hour at the best time from a dark place near London, New York and Sydney, with the moon on the peak night. Tap one for your city.
Northern Taurids
Quiet showerLeonids
Worth a lookGeminids
Great yearUrsids
Quiet showerQuadrantids
Worth a lookLyrids
Quiet showerEta Aquariids
Good yearSouthern Delta Aquariids
Worth a lookPerseids
Good, despite the moonDraconids
Quiet showerOrionids
Quiet showerDark-sky nights away
A dark sky shows three to ten times more meteors than a town. These dark sky parks and reserves have places to stay; the links open with the Geminids night filled in.
Kielder
Europe's largest gold-tier dark sky park, with an observatory.
Hotels for 13–14 DecGalloway Forest
The UK's first dark sky park: on a clear night the Milky Way casts shadows.
Hotels for 13–14 DecExmoor
Europe's first dark sky reserve, two hours from Bristol.
Hotels for 13–14 DecBannau Brycheiniog
A dark sky reserve with wide, open hilltops.
Hotels for 13–14 DecAlqueva
Starlight Reserve with some of Europe's clearest summer skies.
Hotels for 13–14 DecLake Tekapo
The Aoraki Mackenzie dark sky reserve, for the southern showers.
Hotels for 13–14 DecPartner links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.
How to see more of them
Get away from lights
Every step from city to countryside doubles what you see. Turn your back to the nearest town.
Give it 20 minutes
Your eyes need that long to adapt to the dark. One glance at a phone screen resets them.
Look halfway up
Not at the radiant: meteors appear all over the sky, and longer trails show away from it.
Rates: the International Meteor Organization's formula (ZHR × sin of the radiant's height ÷ r^(6.5 − limiting magnitude)), with moonlight and twilight taken into account. Peak times from the Sun's longitude. Clear-sky chances: airport weather reports, 2014–2025, 22:00–04:00 on the peak night and two nights either side, with NASA cloud data where an airport does not report. Estimates, not promises.
Meteor showers: questions
The Northern Taurids, peaking on the night of 11–12 November 2026. From a dark place near London expect up to about 4 an hour around 00:26, with a thin crescent in the sky. Northern Taurids: check your city.
The Geminids in December (up to 150 an hour in perfect skies, bright and slow) and the Perseids in August (about 100 an hour, on warm nights). The Quadrantids in January can match them for a few hours.
The ZHR (zenithal hourly rate) is what one observer would see under a perfect, completely dark sky with the radiant straight overhead. Real skies are brighter, the radiant is lower and the moon may be up, so most people see a third to a tenth of it. Our numbers take all of that into account.
For most showers, after midnight until dawn, when the radiant is high and your side of the Earth faces into the meteor stream. The Geminids are good from about 22:00 and the Draconids in the evening.
No: meteors are best with the naked eye. Lie back, look about halfway up the sky, give your eyes 20 minutes to adapt and keep your phone screen off.