--- title: "Meteor Shower Calendar 2026–2027 | Backyard Orbit" description: "Major meteor showers of 2026 and 2027 from the IMO calendars: peak dates, ZHR, radiants, parent comets, the Moon at each peak and .ics calendar downloads." url: https://backyardorbit.me/meteor-shower-calendar/ --- # Meteor shower calendar 2026–2027 The thirteen major annual showers with their peak dates and rates from the International Meteor Organization, the Moon at each peak and a simple viewing rating. The next peak comes first; add any of them to your calendar. ## The thirteen showers Where each radiant lies, how fast its meteors arrive and the comet or asteroid that left the debris. | Shower | Radiant in | Speed | Parent body | Best seen from | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Quadrantids (QUA) | Boötes | 41 km/s | 2003 EH1 (asteroid) | Northern hemisphere; the radiant is far north | | April Lyrids (LYR) | Lyra | 49 km/s | C/1861 G1 (Thatcher) (comet) | Northern hemisphere, but visible from many sites south of the equator | | Eta Aquariids (ETA) | Aquarius | 66 km/s | 1P/Halley (comet) | Southern hemisphere and tropics; from the north only south of about 40° N, before dawn | | Alpha Capricornids (CAP) | Capricornus | 23 km/s | 169P/NEAT (comet) | Both hemispheres (radiant at −10°) | | Southern Delta Aquariids (SDA) | Aquarius | 41 km/s | 342P/SOHO (comet) | Southern hemisphere, where it is one of the year's most active showers | | Perseids (PER) | Perseus | 59 km/s | 109P/Swift–Tuttle (comet) | Northern hemisphere; mid-northern latitudes are best | | October Draconids (DRA) | Draco | 20 km/s | 21P/Giacobini–Zinner (comet) | Northern hemisphere; the radiant never sets north of about 45° N | | Orionids (ORI) | Orion | 66 km/s | 1P/Halley (comet) | Both hemispheres; the radiant rides higher for northern observers | | Southern Taurids (STA) | Taurus | 27 km/s | 2P/Encke (comet) | All latitudes; northern observers are somewhat better placed | | Northern Taurids (NTA) | Taurus | 29 km/s | 2P/Encke (comet) | All latitudes; northern observers are somewhat better placed | | Leonids (LEO) | Leo | 71 km/s | 55P/Tempel–Tuttle (comet) | Both hemispheres (radiant at +22°), after midnight | | Geminids (GEM) | Gemini | 35 km/s | 3200 Phaethon (asteroid) | Middle and northern latitudes; from the south the radiant rises only around midnight | | Ursids (URS) | Ursa Minor | 33 km/s | 8P/Tuttle (comet) | Northern hemisphere; the radiant is near the north celestial pole | ## How to watch a meteor shower You need no telescope or binoculars: meteors cross large parts of the sky, so lie back and take in as much of it as you can. The **ZHR**, or zenithal hourly rate, is the number of meteors one observer would see in an hour under a perfectly dark sky with the radiant overhead. You will nearly always see fewer, because the radiant is lower, the sky is brighter, or the Moon is up. The **radiant** is the point the meteors seem to come from. Showers are named after the constellation it lies in, and you see more meteors when it is high, which is usually after midnight. Meteors appear all over the sky, not just near the radiant. The **Moon** matters most: a bright Moon hides all but the brightest meteors, which is why the table shows its illuminated fraction at each peak. Peaks are in Universal Time (UT), so your best night may be the one before or after. Showers last days or weeks, and a moonless night near the peak can beat the peak itself. **Getting an astronomy app or planetarium program?** Many free downloads ask for an email address first. A temporary inbox from [CleanTempMail](https://cleantempmail.com/) receives the download link without the newsletters that follow: no sign-up, and messages are deleted after three days. Use your real address for anything you pay for. ## Questions **Which meteor shower is the best of the year?** By the IMO's figures the Geminids in December are the strongest annual shower, with a ZHR of about 150, followed by the Perseids in August (100 in 2026, 110 or more in 2027) and the Quadrantids in January (about 80). Whether a peak is good in a given year depends mostly on the Moon. **What does ZHR mean?** Zenithal hourly rate: how many meteors a single observer would count in an hour if the radiant were straight overhead and the sky were dark enough to show stars of magnitude 6.5. It lets observers compare showers fairly, but it is a ceiling rather than a forecast. **How is the Moon at each peak worked out?** Your browser computes the Moon's illuminated fraction at the moment the Sun reaches the solar longitude of each maximum in the IMO's table, using the formulas in Jean Meeus's Astronomical Algorithms. We checked it against the US Naval Observatory: within two percentage points on every date we tested. **Are the times in the .ics file in my time zone?** Each peak is an all-day event on the IMO's maximum date (UT); the description gives the peak time in UT where the IMO states one. ## Sources - International Meteor Organization, Meteor Shower Calendar [2026](https://www.imo.net/files/meteor-shower/cal2026.pdf) (IMO INFO(3-25)) and [2027](https://www.imo.net/files/meteor-shower/cal2027.pdf) (IMO INFO(3-26)), edited by Jürgen Rendtel: Table 5, Working List of Visual Meteor Showers (activity, maximum date, solar longitude, radiant, speed, ZHR), peak times from the text, the notes on where each shower is best seen, and the definition of the ZHR (reference limiting magnitude 6.5). Checked 30 October 2026. - IAU Meteor Data Center, [list of established meteor showers](https://www.ta3.sk/IAUC22DB/MDC2022/): parent bodies. Checked 30 October 2026. - Jean Meeus, *Astronomical Algorithms*, 2nd edition (Willmann-Bell, 1998): the Sun's longitude (chapter 25) and the Moon's illuminated fraction (chapters 47 and 48), computed in your browser. - US Naval Observatory, [Astronomical Applications API](https://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/api): moon phase times and illuminated fractions used to test the calculation. - The best hemisphere uses the IMO's notes where it gives them and otherwise the radiant's declination: north of +30° northern, south of −30° southern, otherwise both.