Meteor showers · 2027
Draconids 2027: when and where to look
The best night for the Draconids in 2027 is Oct 8-9. At the peak, expect up to 3 meteors an hour from a dark place, and about 1 from a city or a bright suburb.
The Moon is 67% lit and sets around midnight, so the hours after it sets are the darkest.
Very slow. Usually only a few, though some years bring a sudden burst. Unusually for a meteor shower, the evening is the best time.
From your city
The best night and time, which way to look, and how many to expect where you are.
or pick a place:
The best time from these cities
| City | Best night | Best time | Radiant | Dark place | City | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shanghai, CN | Oct 9-10 | 7:00 PM GMT+8 | 53° northwest | 1 | 0 | Oct 9-10 · 7:00 PM GMT+8 · 53° northwest · 1 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| Beijing, CN | Oct 9-10 | 7:25 PM GMT+8 | 58° northwest | 1 | 0 | Oct 9-10 · 7:25 PM GMT+8 · 58° northwest · 1 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| Delhi, IN | Draco stays too low | Draco stays too low | ||||
| Istanbul, TR | Draco stays too low | Draco stays too low | ||||
| Lagos, NG | Draco stays too low | Draco stays too low | ||||
| Karachi, Sindh, PK | Draco stays too low | Draco stays too low | ||||
| Tokyo, JP | Oct 9-10 | 6:44 PM GMT+9 | 56° northwest | 1 | 0 | Oct 9-10 · 6:44 PM GMT+9 · 56° northwest · 1 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| Moscow, RU | Oct 8-9 | 4:37 AM GMT+3 | 20° north | 1 | 0 | Oct 8-9 · 4:37 AM GMT+3 · 20° north · 1 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| Mumbai, Maharashtra, IN | Draco stays too low | Draco stays too low | ||||
| São Paulo, BR | Draco stays too low | Draco stays too low | ||||
| Jakarta, ID | Draco stays too low | Draco stays too low | ||||
| Cairo, EG | Draco stays too low | Draco stays too low | ||||
| Seoul, KR | Oct 9-10 | 7:34 PM GMT+9 | 58° northwest | 1 | 0 | Oct 9-10 · 7:34 PM GMT+9 · 58° northwest · 1 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| Lima, PE | Draco stays too low | Draco stays too low | ||||
| Mexico City, CDMX, MX | Draco stays too low | Draco stays too low | ||||
| Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh, VN | Draco stays too low | Draco stays too low | ||||
| London, England, GB | Oct 8-9 | 5:13 AM GMT+1 | 16° north | 1 | 0 | Oct 8-9 · 5:13 AM GMT+1 · 16° north · 1 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| Dhaka, BD | Draco stays too low | Draco stays too low | ||||
| Bengaluru, Karnataka, IN | Draco stays too low | Draco stays too low | ||||
| New York | Oct 8-9 | 1:16 AM EDT | 18° northwest | 1 | 0 | Oct 8-9 · 1:16 AM EDT · 18° northwest · 1 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| Bangkok, TH | Draco stays too low | Draco stays too low | ||||
| Riyadh, SA | Draco stays too low | Draco stays too low | ||||
| Hong Kong, HK | Oct 9-10 | 7:23 PM GMT+8 | 46° northwest | 1 | 0 | Oct 9-10 · 7:23 PM GMT+8 · 46° northwest · 1 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| Bogotá, CO | Draco stays too low | Draco stays too low | ||||
Meteors an hour at the best time on the best night, for one person watching the whole sky. Times are local.
Where to look
The Draconids seem to fly out from Draco, high in the north in the evening, but they can appear anywhere in the sky, and the ones away from that point have longer trails. Look about halfway up, toward the darkest part of your sky.
Give your eyes 20 to 30 minutes to adjust, put your phone away (its screen resets your night vision), and lie back so you can take in as much sky as you can. No telescope or binoculars: they show too little sky.
Open Look up on the Sky Globe While the shower is on, Look up marks where they come from.
What they are
- Comes from
- Comet Giacobini-Zinner
- Speed
- 20 km/s (about 45,000 mph)
- Peak rate, perfect sky
- 5 an hour (IMO)
- Active
- Oct 6 to Oct 10
Each meteor is a grain of dust, most smaller than a grain of sand, left behind by Comet Giacobini-Zinner. Earth runs into that dust on the same days every year, and the grains burn up about 100 km overhead.
Saw a fireball?
A meteor brighter than Venus is a fireball. Every shower makes a few. If you saw one, or something you can't place, tell us when and where and we'll check it against the shower, satellites, rockets and planes.
The next showers
How we work this out: the peak is when the Sun reaches the shower's place along its yearly path (the International Meteor Organization's way of timing it, with their numbers for the peak rate, the radiant and the speed). For each place we follow the night in 10-minute steps and scale the rate for how high the radiant is, twilight, the Moon and city lights. It's an estimate: clouds, haze and your eyes all change it.