Meteor showers · 2026
Geminids 2026: when and where to look
The best night for the Geminids in 2026 is Dec 13-14. At the peak, expect up to 90 meteors an hour from a dark place, and about 20 from a city or a bright suburb.
The Moon is a crescent (25% lit) that sets in the evening, so the sky stays dark. A good year.
The richest shower of the year: bright, medium speed, some with a tint of color. Good from mid-evening, not just before dawn.
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 | Dec 14-15 | 1:32 AM GMT+8 | 86° northeast | 90 | 20 | Dec 14-15 · 1:32 AM GMT+8 · 86° northeast · 90 an hour dark, 20 in a city |
| Beijing, CN | Dec 14-15 | 1:39 AM GMT+8 | 81° southeast | 90 | 20 | Dec 14-15 · 1:39 AM GMT+8 · 81° southeast · 90 an hour dark, 20 in a city |
| Delhi, IN | Dec 14-15 | 1:35 AM GMT+5:30 | 80° northeast | 80 | 20 | Dec 14-15 · 1:35 AM GMT+5:30 · 80° northeast · 80 an hour dark, 20 in a city |
| Istanbul, TR | Dec 13-14 | 4:26 AM GMT+3 | 72° west | 60 | 15 | Dec 13-14 · 4:26 AM GMT+3 · 72° west · 60 an hour dark, 15 in a city |
| Lagos, NG | Dec 13-14 | 3:33 AM GMT+1 | 61° north | 60 | 15 | Dec 13-14 · 3:33 AM GMT+1 · 61° north · 60 an hour dark, 15 in a city |
| Karachi, Sindh, PK | Dec 14-15 | 1:44 AM GMT+5 | 78° northeast | 80 | 20 | Dec 14-15 · 1:44 AM GMT+5 · 78° northeast · 80 an hour dark, 20 in a city |
| Tokyo, JP | Dec 14-15 | 1:18 AM GMT+9 | 85° southeast | 90 | 20 | Dec 14-15 · 1:18 AM GMT+9 · 85° southeast · 90 an hour dark, 20 in a city |
| Moscow, RU | Dec 14-15 | 1:16 AM GMT+3 | 64° southeast | 70 | 15 | Dec 14-15 · 1:16 AM GMT+3 · 64° southeast · 70 an hour dark, 15 in a city |
| Mumbai, Maharashtra, IN | Dec 14-15 | 2:02 AM GMT+5:30 | 74° northeast | 80 | 20 | Dec 14-15 · 2:02 AM GMT+5:30 · 74° northeast · 80 an hour dark, 20 in a city |
| São Paulo, BR | Dec 13-14 | 2:27 AM GMT-3 | 33° north | 40 | 10 | Dec 13-14 · 2:27 AM GMT-3 · 33° north · 40 an hour dark, 10 in a city |
| Jakarta, ID | Dec 14-15 | 1:31 AM GMT+7 | 51° north | 70 | 15 | Dec 14-15 · 1:31 AM GMT+7 · 51° north · 70 an hour dark, 15 in a city |
| Cairo, EG | Dec 13-14 | 3:06 AM GMT+2 | 74° west | 60 | 15 | Dec 13-14 · 3:06 AM GMT+2 · 74° west · 60 an hour dark, 15 in a city |
| Seoul, KR | Dec 14-15 | 2:04 AM GMT+9 | 83° southeast | 90 | 20 | Dec 14-15 · 2:04 AM GMT+9 · 83° southeast · 90 an hour dark, 20 in a city |
| Lima, PE | Dec 13-14 | 2:27 AM GMT-5 | 45° north | 60 | 15 | Dec 13-14 · 2:27 AM GMT-5 · 45° north · 60 an hour dark, 15 in a city |
| Mexico City, CDMX, MX | Dec 13-14 | 3:00 AM CST | 75° north | 80 | 20 | Dec 13-14 · 3:00 AM CST · 75° north · 80 an hour dark, 20 in a city |
| Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh, VN | Dec 14-15 | 1:22 AM GMT+7 | 67° north | 80 | 20 | Dec 14-15 · 1:22 AM GMT+7 · 67° north · 80 an hour dark, 20 in a city |
| London, England, GB | Dec 13-14 | 3:21 AM GMT | 66° southwest | 70 | 15 | Dec 13-14 · 3:21 AM GMT · 66° southwest · 70 an hour dark, 15 in a city |
| Dhaka, BD | Dec 14-15 | 1:23 AM GMT+6 | 79° northeast | 80 | 20 | Dec 14-15 · 1:23 AM GMT+6 · 79° northeast · 80 an hour dark, 20 in a city |
| Bengaluru, Karnataka, IN | Dec 14-15 | 1:45 AM GMT+5:30 | 69° north | 80 | 20 | Dec 14-15 · 1:45 AM GMT+5:30 · 69° north · 80 an hour dark, 20 in a city |
| New York | Dec 13-14 | 2:39 AM EST | 78° southwest | 80 | 20 | Dec 13-14 · 2:39 AM EST · 78° southwest · 80 an hour dark, 20 in a city |
| Bangkok, TH | Dec 14-15 | 1:52 AM GMT+7 | 70° north | 80 | 20 | Dec 14-15 · 1:52 AM GMT+7 · 70° north · 80 an hour dark, 20 in a city |
| Riyadh, SA | Dec 14-15 | 1:06 AM GMT+3 | 78° northeast | 80 | 20 | Dec 14-15 · 1:06 AM GMT+3 · 78° northeast · 80 an hour dark, 20 in a city |
| Hong Kong, HK | Dec 14-15 | 2:01 AM GMT+8 | 79° north | 90 | 20 | Dec 14-15 · 2:01 AM GMT+8 · 79° north · 90 an hour dark, 20 in a city |
| Bogotá, CO | Dec 13-14 | 2:26 AM GMT-5 | 61° north | 70 | 20 | Dec 13-14 · 2:26 AM GMT-5 · 61° north · 70 an hour dark, 20 in a city |
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 Geminids seem to fly out from Gemini, which is up in the east by mid-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
- Asteroid 3200 Phaethon
- Speed
- 35 km/s (about 78,000 mph)
- Peak rate, perfect sky
- 150 an hour (IMO)
- Active
- Dec 4 to Dec 20
Each meteor is a grain of dust, most smaller than a grain of sand, left behind by the asteroid 3200 Phaethon. 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.