Meteor Showers to Watch From November 2026 to October 2027: A Beginner’s Calendar

Meteor showers are some of the easiest sky events to enjoy. You don’t need a telescope, binoculars or any experience. All you need is a reasonably dark spot, a clear night and some patience. This calendar lists the main showers from November 2026 to October 2027, with the peak dates published by timeanddate.com for the New York time zone. It also explains where each shower comes from and how to get the most out of a night under the stars.

What is a meteor shower?

NASA estimates that about 44 tonnes of meteoritic material falls on Earth every day. Almost all of it burns up in the atmosphere as the bright streaks we call shooting stars. On any night you can usually see a few meteors an hour. A meteor shower happens when Earth passes through a trail of dust left behind by a comet (or occasionally an asteroid), and the number of meteors rises sharply for a few nights.

Each shower is named after the constellation its meteors seem to come from. That point is called the radiant. The Perseids, for example, seem to come from Perseus. You don’t need to stare at the radiant, though. Meteors can appear anywhere in the sky. Trace a trail backwards and it will point towards the radiant.

The calendar: November 2026 to October 2027

The dates below are peak nights from timeanddate.com’s meteor shower calendar, calculated for New York. Peaks can shift by a day elsewhere in the world. The ZHR figure, or zenithal hourly rate, comes from the International Meteor Organization data summarised on Wikipedia. It is the number of meteors one observer would see in an hour under a perfectly dark sky with the radiant overhead. Real-world counts are almost always lower.

• Leonids, peak night 17–18 November 2026. Parent comet 55P/Tempel–Tuttle. Typical ZHR about 15. Very fast meteors (about 71 km/s), and they can be seen from both hemispheres.
• Geminids, peak night 13–14 December 2026. Parent body 3200 Phaethon, which is an asteroid rather than a comet. Typical ZHR about 150, making it usually the strongest shower of the year. Its meteors are relatively slow, at about 35 km/s.
• Ursids, peak night 22–23 December 2026. Parent comet 8P/Tuttle. Typical ZHR about 10. Best seen from the Northern Hemisphere, because the radiant is near the Little Dipper.
• Quadrantids, peak night 3–4 January 2027. Probable parent asteroid 2003 EH1. Typical ZHR about 80, but the peak is short (a matter of hours), so timing matters. Best seen from the Northern Hemisphere.
• Lyrids, peak night 22–23 April 2027. Parent comet C/1861 G1 (Thatcher). Typical ZHR about 18.
• Eta Aquariids, peak night 5–6 May 2027. Parent comet 1P/Halley. Typical ZHR about 50. Better from the Southern Hemisphere and low latitudes. The radiant sits almost on the celestial equator, at declination −1°.
• Perseids, peak night 12–13 August 2027. Parent comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, which NASA notes passes the Sun every 135 years. Typical ZHR about 100. This is the classic warm-weather shower for the Northern Hemisphere.
• Draconids, peak night 8–9 October 2027. Parent comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner. Usually weak, with a ZHR of about 5. Best from the Northern Hemisphere.
• Orionids, peak around 21 October. Like the Eta Aquariids, these come from Halley’s Comet. Typical ZHR about 20. (The 2026 peak was 21–22 October. Check timeanddate.com for the exact 2027 night.)

How to watch: a simple checklist

• Check the Moon. A bright Moon washes out all but the brightest meteors. Before you go out, check the Moon’s phase for your peak night. If the Moon is up, try the hours after it sets.
• Wait for the radiant to rise. You see more meteors when the radiant is high, so check a planetarium app or star chart for when its constellation is well up.
• Get away from lights. Even a short drive away from streetlights makes a big difference. See our guide to light pollution for how to judge your sky.
• Let your eyes adapt. Your eyes take about 20–30 minutes to fully adapt to the dark. Don’t look at your phone screen. If you need light, use a dim red light, because red light disturbs dark adaptation the least.
• Lie back and look up. A reclining chair or a mat lets you take in as much sky as possible. Telescopes and binoculars are no help here, because their field of view is far too narrow.
• Stay at least an hour. Meteors come in bursts and lulls, so give yourself time.

Photographing meteors

If you have a camera that can take long exposures, mount it on a tripod, use a wide-angle lens, focus on a bright star and take continuous exposures of several seconds to tens of seconds. Most frames will be empty, but over an hour or two you may catch a few trails. A smartphone in night mode on a tripod can sometimes record bright meteors too.

Plan your year

Put the Geminids (December) and Perseids (August) on your calendar first. These are the two most reliable showers for Northern Hemisphere observers. Then add the Quadrantids if you can handle a cold January night. If you are new to the night sky, our Stargazing for Beginners guide and Major Constellations guide will help you find the radiants.

Sources

• https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/meteor-shower/list.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_meteor_showers
• https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/meteors-meteorites/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptation_(eye)

Photo: Giles Laurent, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/R. Sparks (NSF’s NOIRLab), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Stephan Sprinz, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons