Sky calendar
The next 18 months of things that happen on a date, solved from the ephemeris rather than kept in a list. Almost every one is the same instant for everybody on Earth, so a date here needs no location to be true — what is visible tonight is the list that does depend on where you are standing.
Coming up
] SOONEST FIRST- METEORSIN 41 DAYS8THU
Draconids at maximum
Earth crosses 21P/Giacobini-Zinner's dust trail: up to 5 an hour under a perfect sky, tracing back to Draco.
- METEORSIN 43 DAYS9FRI
Southern Taurids at maximum
Earth crosses 2P/Encke's dust trail: up to 5 an hour under a perfect sky, tracing back to Cetus.
- METEORSIN 54 DAYS21WED
Orionids at maximum
Earth crosses 1P/Halley's dust trail: up to 20 an hour under a perfect sky, tracing back to Orion.
+WHAT THE EIGHT KINDS ARE
- Eclipses — solar and lunar, with where on Earth each is greatest.
- Meteor showers — dated by where the Earth is in its orbit, not by a fixed calendar day.
- Moon phases — the four quarters, which set what else is worth chasing that fortnight.
- Close pairings — two bright things within a few degrees of each other.
- Oppositions — the night each outer planet is closest, biggest and up all night.
- Elongations — the mornings and evenings Mercury and Venus stand furthest from the Sun.
- Equinoxes and solstices — the four turning points of the year.
- Flybys — near-Earth asteroids passing inside twenty lunar distances.
Pick a place and every event will say which hours are worth being outside for it. Until you do, nothing here is answered for anywhere in particular.
October 2026
] 3 EVENTS- 8THUMETEORS--:--ACTIVE 2026-10-07 — 2026-10-09
Draconids at maximum
The Earth crosses the densest part of a dust trail left by 21P/Giacobini-Zinner, and the debris burns up at 20 km/s. Under a genuinely dark sky with the radiant overhead this is worth about 5 meteors an hour — a real sky and a real radiant altitude will give fewer, and a bright moon fewer still. Meteors appear all over the sky; they only trace back to Draco, which is where to point a camera and not where to stare. It is usually almost nothing, and about once a generation a storm of thousands an hour; the slowest meteors of any shower, and the only major one best watched in the evening rather than after midnight.
+WHAT TO EXPECTCLOSE
- RATE
- 5/hour — under a sky showing sixth-magnitude stars, with the radiant overhead — a normalisation, not a forecast
- MOON
- 5% lit — out of the sky all night
- SPEED
- 20 km/s — entering the atmosphere
The Moon is new that night and out of the way entirely — this is as good as this shower's peak gets.
No equipment, and equipment actively hurts: binoculars cut your view down to a few degrees, and the meteors are everywhere. Lie back, look about two-thirds of the way up the sky rather than at the radiant, give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt, and stay out for an hour — rates come in gusts and a ten-minute look proves nothing.
- 9FRIMETEORS--:--ACTIVE 2026-09-09 — 2026-11-20
Southern Taurids at maximum
The Earth crosses the densest part of a dust trail left by 2P/Encke, and the debris burns up at 27 km/s. Under a genuinely dark sky with the radiant overhead this is worth about 5 meteors an hour — a real sky and a real radiant altitude will give fewer, and a bright moon fewer still. Meteors appear all over the sky; they only trace back to Cetus, which is where to point a camera and not where to stare. It is ten weeks of activity at a handful an hour, made worth watching by the fireballs — slow, orange and bright enough to cast a shadow. The radiant drifts right across the sky over those weeks, from Cetus in September into Taurus in November, so the shower is named for where it ends up rather than where it is on any one night.
+WHAT TO EXPECTCLOSE
- RATE
- 5/hour — under a sky showing sixth-magnitude stars, with the radiant overhead — a normalisation, not a forecast
- MOON
- 1% lit — out of the sky all night
- SPEED
- 27 km/s — entering the atmosphere
The Moon is new that night and out of the way entirely — this is as good as this shower's peak gets.
No equipment, and equipment actively hurts: binoculars cut your view down to a few degrees, and the meteors are everywhere. Lie back, look about two-thirds of the way up the sky rather than at the radiant, give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt, and stay out for an hour — rates come in gusts and a ten-minute look proves nothing.
- 21WEDMETEORS--:--ACTIVE 2026-10-06 — 2026-11-02
Orionids at maximum
The Earth crosses the densest part of a dust trail left by 1P/Halley, and the debris burns up at 66 km/s. Under a genuinely dark sky with the radiant overhead this is worth about 20 meteors an hour — a real sky and a real radiant altitude will give fewer, and a bright moon fewer still. Meteors appear all over the sky; they only trace back to Orion, which is where to point a camera and not where to stare. It is the other half of Halley's dust — the same comet as the η Aquariids, met on the way out of the stream instead of into it, and equally fast.
+WHAT TO EXPECTCLOSE
- RATE
- 20/hour — under a sky showing sixth-magnitude stars, with the radiant overhead — a normalisation, not a forecast
- MOON
- 75% lit — sets in the small hours
- SPEED
- 66 km/s — entering the atmosphere
The Moon is 75% lit and sets in the small hours, which will wash out everything but the brightest of them while it is there. The rate above is what a moonless sky would give; expect a fraction of it.
No equipment, and equipment actively hurts: binoculars cut your view down to a few degrees, and the meteors are everywhere. Lie back, look about two-thirds of the way up the sky rather than at the radiant, give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt, and stay out for an hour — rates come in gusts and a ten-minute look proves nothing.
November 2026
] 2 EVENTS- 12THUMETEORS--:--ACTIVE 2026-10-17 — 2026-12-05
Northern Taurids at maximum
The Earth crosses the densest part of a dust trail left by 2P/Encke, and the debris burns up at 29 km/s. Under a genuinely dark sky with the radiant overhead this is worth about 5 meteors an hour — a real sky and a real radiant altitude will give fewer, and a bright moon fewer still. Meteors appear all over the sky; they only trace back to Taurus, which is where to point a camera and not where to stare. It is the second branch of the same broad stream, overlapping the first for most of November and throwing the same slow fireballs.
+WHAT TO EXPECTCLOSE
- RATE
- 5/hour — under a sky showing sixth-magnitude stars, with the radiant overhead — a normalisation, not a forecast
- MOON
- 9% lit — sets in the early evening
- SPEED
- 29 km/s — entering the atmosphere
The Moon is a 9% crescent and sets in the early evening — thin enough that it barely matters.
No equipment, and equipment actively hurts: binoculars cut your view down to a few degrees, and the meteors are everywhere. Lie back, look about two-thirds of the way up the sky rather than at the radiant, give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt, and stay out for an hour — rates come in gusts and a ten-minute look proves nothing.
- 17TUEMETEORS--:--ACTIVE 2026-11-12 — 2026-11-27
Leonids at maximum
The Earth crosses the densest part of a dust trail left by 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, and the debris burns up at 71 km/s. Under a genuinely dark sky with the radiant overhead this is worth about 15 meteors an hour — a real sky and a real radiant altitude will give fewer, and a bright moon fewer still. Meteors appear all over the sky; they only trace back to Leo, which is where to point a camera and not where to stare. It is the fastest meteors that reach us, and the shower with the most spectacular history — every 33 years or so, when the parent comet has just been past, it has produced storms of tens of thousands an hour.
+WHAT TO EXPECTCLOSE
- RATE
- 15/hour — under a sky showing sixth-magnitude stars, with the radiant overhead — a normalisation, not a forecast
- MOON
- 51% lit — sets around midnight
- SPEED
- 71 km/s — entering the atmosphere
The Moon is 51% lit and sets around midnight. It will cost you the faint end of the shower while it is up, so the hours after it goes are worth more than the hours before.
No equipment, and equipment actively hurts: binoculars cut your view down to a few degrees, and the meteors are everywhere. Lie back, look about two-thirds of the way up the sky rather than at the radiant, give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt, and stay out for an hour — rates come in gusts and a ten-minute look proves nothing.
December 2026
] 2 EVENTS- 14MONMETEORS--:--ACTIVE 2026-12-07 — 2026-12-19
Geminids at maximum
The Earth crosses the densest part of a dust trail left by 3200 Phaethon, and the debris burns up at 35 km/s. Under a genuinely dark sky with the radiant overhead this is worth about 150 meteors an hour — a real sky and a real radiant altitude will give fewer, and a bright moon fewer still. Meteors appear all over the sky; they only trace back to Gemini, which is where to point a camera and not where to stare. It is the richest shower of the year, and the only major one whose parent is an asteroid rather than a comet; medium-speed, often yellow, and active from mid-evening because the radiant rises early.
+WHAT TO EXPECTCLOSE
- RATE
- 150/hour — under a sky showing sixth-magnitude stars, with the radiant overhead — a normalisation, not a forecast
- MOON
- 22% lit — sets in the early evening
- SPEED
- 35 km/s — entering the atmosphere
The Moon is a 22% crescent and sets in the early evening — thin enough that it barely matters.
No equipment, and equipment actively hurts: binoculars cut your view down to a few degrees, and the meteors are everywhere. Lie back, look about two-thirds of the way up the sky rather than at the radiant, give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt, and stay out for an hour — rates come in gusts and a ten-minute look proves nothing.
- 22TUEMETEORS--:--ACTIVE 2026-12-20 — 2026-12-25
Ursids at maximum
The Earth crosses the densest part of a dust trail left by 8P/Tuttle, and the debris burns up at 33 km/s. Under a genuinely dark sky with the radiant overhead this is worth about 10 meteors an hour — a real sky and a real radiant altitude will give fewer, and a bright moon fewer still. Meteors appear all over the sky; they only trace back to Ursa Minor, which is where to point a camera and not where to stare. It is a small northern shower nobody watches because it falls the week of the December solstice; the radiant never sets from most of the northern hemisphere, so it can be watched all night.
+WHAT TO EXPECTCLOSE
- RATE
- 10/hour — under a sky showing sixth-magnitude stars, with the radiant overhead — a normalisation, not a forecast
- MOON
- 96% lit — sets in the small hours
- SPEED
- 33 km/s — entering the atmosphere
The Moon is 96% lit and sets in the small hours, which will wash out everything but the brightest of them while it is there. The rate above is what a moonless sky would give; expect a fraction of it.
No equipment, and equipment actively hurts: binoculars cut your view down to a few degrees, and the meteors are everywhere. Lie back, look about two-thirds of the way up the sky rather than at the radiant, give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt, and stay out for an hour — rates come in gusts and a ten-minute look proves nothing.
January 2027
] 1 EVENT- 3SUNMETEORS--:--ACTIVE 2027-01-02 — 2027-01-06
Quadrantids at maximum
The Earth crosses the densest part of a dust trail left by 196256 (2003 EH₁), and the debris burns up at 41 km/s. Under a genuinely dark sky with the radiant overhead this is worth about 110 meteors an hour — a real sky and a real radiant altitude will give fewer, and a bright moon fewer still. Meteors appear all over the sky; they only trace back to Boötes, which is where to point a camera and not where to stare. It is the sharpest maximum of any shower — the good hours are about six wide, so the peak either falls on your night or it does not.
+WHAT TO EXPECTCLOSE
- RATE
- 110/hour — under a sky showing sixth-magnitude stars, with the radiant overhead — a normalisation, not a forecast
- MOON
- 14% lit — rises in the small hours
- SPEED
- 41 km/s — entering the atmosphere
The Moon is a 14% crescent and rises in the small hours — thin enough that it barely matters.
No equipment, and equipment actively hurts: binoculars cut your view down to a few degrees, and the meteors are everywhere. Lie back, look about two-thirds of the way up the sky rather than at the radiant, give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt, and stay out for an hour — rates come in gusts and a ten-minute look proves nothing.
April 2027
] 1 EVENT- 22THUMETEORS--:--ACTIVE 2027-04-19 — 2027-04-26
Lyrids at maximum
The Earth crosses the densest part of a dust trail left by C/1861 G1 (Thatcher), and the debris burns up at 49 km/s. Under a genuinely dark sky with the radiant overhead this is worth about 18 meteors an hour — a real sky and a real radiant altitude will give fewer, and a bright moon fewer still. Meteors appear all over the sky; they only trace back to Hercules, close to Vega, which is where to point a camera and not where to stare. It is the oldest shower on record, watched from China in 687 BC, and still capable of a brief outburst nobody predicted.
+WHAT TO EXPECTCLOSE
- RATE
- 18/hour — under a sky showing sixth-magnitude stars, with the radiant overhead — a normalisation, not a forecast
- MOON
- 97% lit — rises in the mid-evening
- SPEED
- 49 km/s — entering the atmosphere
The Moon is 97% lit and rises in the mid-evening, which will wash out everything but the brightest of them while it is there. The rate above is what a moonless sky would give; expect a fraction of it.
No equipment, and equipment actively hurts: binoculars cut your view down to a few degrees, and the meteors are everywhere. Lie back, look about two-thirds of the way up the sky rather than at the radiant, give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt, and stay out for an hour — rates come in gusts and a ten-minute look proves nothing.
May 2027
] 1 EVENT- 6THUMETEORS--:--ACTIVE 2027-05-01 — 2027-05-16
η Aquariids at maximum
The Earth crosses the densest part of a dust trail left by 1P/Halley, and the debris burns up at 66 km/s. Under a genuinely dark sky with the radiant overhead this is worth about 50 meteors an hour — a real sky and a real radiant altitude will give fewer, and a bright moon fewer still. Meteors appear all over the sky; they only trace back to Aquarius, which is where to point a camera and not where to stare. It is dust from Halley's Comet, hitting the atmosphere almost head-on and leaving glowing trains that hang for seconds; much better from the southern hemisphere, where the radiant climbs before dawn instead of skimming the horizon.
+WHAT TO EXPECTCLOSE
- RATE
- 50/hour — under a sky showing sixth-magnitude stars, with the radiant overhead — a normalisation, not a forecast
- MOON
- 0% lit — out of the sky all night
- SPEED
- 66 km/s — entering the atmosphere
The Moon is new that night and out of the way entirely — this is as good as this shower's peak gets.
No equipment, and equipment actively hurts: binoculars cut your view down to a few degrees, and the meteors are everywhere. Lie back, look about two-thirds of the way up the sky rather than at the radiant, give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt, and stay out for an hour — rates come in gusts and a ten-minute look proves nothing.
July 2027
] 2 EVENTS- 28WEDMETEORS--:--ACTIVE 2027-07-12 — 2027-08-23
Southern δ Aquariids at maximum
The Earth crosses the densest part of a dust trail left by 96P/Machholz, and the debris burns up at 41 km/s. Under a genuinely dark sky with the radiant overhead this is worth about 25 meteors an hour — a real sky and a real radiant altitude will give fewer, and a bright moon fewer still. Meteors appear all over the sky; they only trace back to Aquarius, which is where to point a camera and not where to stare. It is a broad, faint stream with no sharp peak, best from the southern hemisphere and from southern latitudes in the north.
+WHAT TO EXPECTCLOSE
- RATE
- 25/hour — under a sky showing sixth-magnitude stars, with the radiant overhead — a normalisation, not a forecast
- MOON
- 33% lit — rises around midnight
- SPEED
- 41 km/s — entering the atmosphere
The Moon is 33% lit and rises around midnight. It will cost you the faint end of the shower while it is up, so the hours after it goes are worth more than the hours before.
No equipment, and equipment actively hurts: binoculars cut your view down to a few degrees, and the meteors are everywhere. Lie back, look about two-thirds of the way up the sky rather than at the radiant, give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt, and stay out for an hour — rates come in gusts and a ten-minute look proves nothing.
- 30FRIMETEORS--:--ACTIVE 2027-07-03 — 2027-08-15
α Capricornids at maximum
The Earth crosses the densest part of a dust trail left by 169P/NEAT, and the debris burns up at 23 km/s. Under a genuinely dark sky with the radiant overhead this is worth about 5 meteors an hour — a real sky and a real radiant altitude will give fewer, and a bright moon fewer still. Meteors appear all over the sky; they only trace back to Capricornus, which is where to point a camera and not where to stare. It is slow and bright rather than numerous — the rate is low but a good fraction of what it does produce are fireballs, and both hemispheres see it equally.
+WHAT TO EXPECTCLOSE
- RATE
- 5/hour — under a sky showing sixth-magnitude stars, with the radiant overhead — a normalisation, not a forecast
- MOON
- 14% lit — rises in the small hours
- SPEED
- 23 km/s — entering the atmosphere
The Moon is a 14% crescent and rises in the small hours — thin enough that it barely matters.
No equipment, and equipment actively hurts: binoculars cut your view down to a few degrees, and the meteors are everywhere. Lie back, look about two-thirds of the way up the sky rather than at the radiant, give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt, and stay out for an hour — rates come in gusts and a ten-minute look proves nothing.
August 2027
] 1 EVENT- 12THUMETEORS--:--ACTIVE 2027-07-17 — 2027-08-24
Perseids at maximum
The Earth crosses the densest part of a dust trail left by 109P/Swift-Tuttle, and the debris burns up at 59 km/s. Under a genuinely dark sky with the radiant overhead this is worth about 100 meteors an hour — a real sky and a real radiant altitude will give fewer, and a bright moon fewer still. Meteors appear all over the sky; they only trace back to Perseus, which is where to point a camera and not where to stare. It is the reliable one, and the one that falls in the northern hemisphere's warmest nights — bright, fast, and often leaving persistent trains.
+WHAT TO EXPECTCLOSE
- RATE
- 100/hour — under a sky showing sixth-magnitude stars, with the radiant overhead — a normalisation, not a forecast
- MOON
- 84% lit — sets in the small hours
- SPEED
- 59 km/s — entering the atmosphere
The Moon is 84% lit and sets in the small hours, which will wash out everything but the brightest of them while it is there. The rate above is what a moonless sky would give; expect a fraction of it.
No equipment, and equipment actively hurts: binoculars cut your view down to a few degrees, and the meteors are everywhere. Lie back, look about two-thirds of the way up the sky rather than at the radiant, give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt, and stay out for an hour — rates come in gusts and a ten-minute look proves nothing.
October 2027
] 3 EVENTS- 8FRIMETEORS--:--ACTIVE 2027-10-08 — 2027-10-10
Draconids at maximum
Earth crosses 21P/Giacobini-Zinner's dust trail: up to 5 an hour under a perfect sky, tracing back to Draco.
+WHAT TO EXPECTCLOSE
- RATE
- 5/hour — under a sky showing sixth-magnitude stars, with the radiant overhead — a normalisation, not a forecast
- MOON
- 64% lit — sets around midnight
- SPEED
- 20 km/s — entering the atmosphere
The Moon is 64% lit and sets around midnight. It will cost you the faint end of the shower while it is up, so the hours after it goes are worth more than the hours before.
No equipment, and equipment actively hurts: binoculars cut your view down to a few degrees, and the meteors are everywhere. Lie back, look about two-thirds of the way up the sky rather than at the radiant, give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt, and stay out for an hour — rates come in gusts and a ten-minute look proves nothing.
- 9SATMETEORS--:--ACTIVE 2027-09-09 — 2027-11-20
Southern Taurids at maximum
Earth crosses 2P/Encke's dust trail: up to 5 an hour under a perfect sky, tracing back to Cetus.
+WHAT TO EXPECTCLOSE
- RATE
- 5/hour — under a sky showing sixth-magnitude stars, with the radiant overhead — a normalisation, not a forecast
- MOON
- 72% lit — sets in the small hours
- SPEED
- 27 km/s — entering the atmosphere
The Moon is 72% lit and sets in the small hours, which will wash out everything but the brightest of them while it is there. The rate above is what a moonless sky would give; expect a fraction of it.
No equipment, and equipment actively hurts: binoculars cut your view down to a few degrees, and the meteors are everywhere. Lie back, look about two-thirds of the way up the sky rather than at the radiant, give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt, and stay out for an hour — rates come in gusts and a ten-minute look proves nothing.
- 21THUMETEORS--:--ACTIVE 2027-10-06 — 2027-11-02
Orionids at maximum
Earth crosses 1P/Halley's dust trail: up to 20 an hour under a perfect sky, tracing back to Orion.
+WHAT TO EXPECTCLOSE
- RATE
- 20/hour — under a sky showing sixth-magnitude stars, with the radiant overhead — a normalisation, not a forecast
- MOON
- 62% lit — rises around midnight
- SPEED
- 66 km/s — entering the atmosphere
The Moon is 62% lit and rises around midnight. It will cost you the faint end of the shower while it is up, so the hours after it goes are worth more than the hours before.
No equipment, and equipment actively hurts: binoculars cut your view down to a few degrees, and the meteors are everywhere. Lie back, look about two-thirds of the way up the sky rather than at the radiant, give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt, and stay out for an hour — rates come in gusts and a ten-minute look proves nothing.
November 2027
] 2 EVENTS- 12FRIMETEORS--:--ACTIVE 2027-10-17 — 2027-12-05
Northern Taurids at maximum
Earth crosses 2P/Encke's dust trail: up to 5 an hour under a perfect sky, tracing back to Taurus.
+WHAT TO EXPECTCLOSE
- RATE
- 5/hour — under a sky showing sixth-magnitude stars, with the radiant overhead — a normalisation, not a forecast
- MOON
- 97% lit — up for the whole night
- SPEED
- 29 km/s — entering the atmosphere
The Moon is 97% lit and up for the whole night, which will wash out everything but the brightest of them while it is there. The rate above is what a moonless sky would give; expect a fraction of it.
No equipment, and equipment actively hurts: binoculars cut your view down to a few degrees, and the meteors are everywhere. Lie back, look about two-thirds of the way up the sky rather than at the radiant, give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt, and stay out for an hour — rates come in gusts and a ten-minute look proves nothing.
- 17WEDMETEORS--:--ACTIVE 2027-11-12 — 2027-11-27
Leonids at maximum
Earth crosses 55P/Tempel-Tuttle's dust trail: up to 15 an hour under a perfect sky, tracing back to Leo.
+WHAT TO EXPECTCLOSE
- RATE
- 15/hour — under a sky showing sixth-magnitude stars, with the radiant overhead — a normalisation, not a forecast
- MOON
- 83% lit — rises in the mid-evening
- SPEED
- 71 km/s — entering the atmosphere
The Moon is 83% lit and rises in the mid-evening, which will wash out everything but the brightest of them while it is there. The rate above is what a moonless sky would give; expect a fraction of it.
No equipment, and equipment actively hurts: binoculars cut your view down to a few degrees, and the meteors are everywhere. Lie back, look about two-thirds of the way up the sky rather than at the radiant, give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt, and stay out for an hour — rates come in gusts and a ten-minute look proves nothing.
December 2027
] 2 EVENTS- 14TUEMETEORS--:--ACTIVE 2027-12-07 — 2027-12-20
Geminids at maximum
Earth crosses 3200 Phaethon's dust trail: up to 150 an hour under a perfect sky, tracing back to Gemini.
+WHAT TO EXPECTCLOSE
- RATE
- 150/hour — under a sky showing sixth-magnitude stars, with the radiant overhead — a normalisation, not a forecast
- MOON
- 99% lit — up for the whole night
- SPEED
- 35 km/s — entering the atmosphere
The Moon is 99% lit and up for the whole night, which will wash out everything but the brightest of them while it is there. The rate above is what a moonless sky would give; expect a fraction of it.
No equipment, and equipment actively hurts: binoculars cut your view down to a few degrees, and the meteors are everywhere. Lie back, look about two-thirds of the way up the sky rather than at the radiant, give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt, and stay out for an hour — rates come in gusts and a ten-minute look proves nothing.
- 22WEDMETEORS--:--ACTIVE 2027-12-21 — 2027-12-26
Ursids at maximum
Earth crosses 8P/Tuttle's dust trail: up to 10 an hour under a perfect sky, tracing back to Ursa Minor.
+WHAT TO EXPECTCLOSE
- RATE
- 10/hour — under a sky showing sixth-magnitude stars, with the radiant overhead — a normalisation, not a forecast
- MOON
- 25% lit — rises in the small hours
- SPEED
- 33 km/s — entering the atmosphere
The Moon is a 25% crescent and rises in the small hours — thin enough that it barely matters.
No equipment, and equipment actively hurts: binoculars cut your view down to a few degrees, and the meteors are everywhere. Lie back, look about two-thirds of the way up the sky rather than at the radiant, give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt, and stay out for an hour — rates come in gusts and a ten-minute look proves nothing.
January 2028
] 1 EVENT- 4TUEMETEORS--:--ACTIVE 2028-01-02 — 2028-01-06
Quadrantids at maximum
Earth crosses 196256 (2003 EH₁)'s dust trail: up to 110 an hour under a perfect sky, tracing back to Boötes.
+WHAT TO EXPECTCLOSE
- RATE
- 110/hour — under a sky showing sixth-magnitude stars, with the radiant overhead — a normalisation, not a forecast
- MOON
- 40% lit — sets in the early evening
- SPEED
- 41 km/s — entering the atmosphere
The Moon is 40% lit and sets in the early evening. It will cost you the faint end of the shower while it is up, so the hours after it goes are worth more than the hours before.
No equipment, and equipment actively hurts: binoculars cut your view down to a few degrees, and the meteors are everywhere. Lie back, look about two-thirds of the way up the sky rather than at the radiant, give your eyes twenty minutes to adapt, and stay out for an hour — rates come in gusts and a ten-minute look proves nothing.
21 events for the 18 months from today, of the kinds selected above. Times are instants, shown on your own clock; how every number here was made.
Nothing here is a hand-kept list. Every date except the flybys is solved from the same ephemeris the rest of the site uses to place the planets, at the moment you load the page; a meteor shower is dated by the longitude the Sun reaches rather than by a day of the month, which is why its date moves a little from year to year. The same events are available as JSON and CSV.
The 26 close approaches come from NASA/JPL Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, as they stood on 2026-08-25, and cover passes inside 20 lunar distances through 2028-03-27. Unlike everything else on this page they cannot be computed from an ephemeris here — a newly discovered asteroid has no orbit until somebody measures one — so they are as complete as that date and no more.