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☄️ The Leonids meteor shower

Usually modest, but every 33 years or so it can become a storm of thousands an hour. Active from 6 to 30 November.

The next peak · in 18 days

17 November 2026 at 23:46 UTC

Up to 15 meteors an hour under a dark sky. The Moon is 55% lit that night. Some moonlight, so fewer faint meteors.

The best hours are usually after midnight and before dawn, on the night of the peak and the night before.

The next few years

18 November 2027 at 05:55 UTCMoon 80% lit · Bright moonlight hides all but the brightest meteors.
17 November 2028 at 12:04 UTCMoon 1% lit · A dark sky: a good year to watch.
17 November 2029 at 18:13 UTCMoon 90% lit · Bright moonlight hides all but the brightest meteors.

At its peak: Up to 15 meteors an hour under a dark sky
Active: 6 to 30 November
Seems to come from: Leo
Where to see it: From both halves of Earth
Made by: Dust from Comet Tempel–Tuttle

How to watch

Get away from city lights if you can, and give your eyes 20 minutes to get used to the dark. Don’t look at your phone.
Lie back and look at a wide stretch of sky. Meteors appear anywhere, though their trails point back to Leo.
No telescope or binoculars: they show too little of the sky. Your eyes are best.
“Up to 15 an hour” is for a perfectly dark sky. From a town, expect a fraction of that.

Other meteor showers

All of them

Quadrantids Lyrids Eta Aquariids Perseids Orionids Geminids Ursids

Peak dates from the International Meteor Organization’s list of showers, worked out for each year; the Moon worked out with Astronomy Engine. Times are UTC until the page has loaded, then your own time zone.