Meteor showers · 2026
Ursids 2026: when and where to look
The best night for the Ursids in 2026 is Dec 22-23. At the peak, expect up to 6 meteors an hour from a dark place, and about 1 from a city or a bright suburb.
The Moon is 98% lit and up most of the night, so its glow will hide the fainter meteors. You'll still catch the bright ones; keep the Moon behind you.
A modest shower around the December solstice, best from the north, where the radiant never sets.
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 22-23 | 5:16 AM GMT+8 | 40° north | 2 | 1 | Dec 22-23 · 5:16 AM GMT+8 · 40° north · 2 an hour dark, 1 in a city |
| Beijing, CN | Dec 22-23 | 5:52 AM GMT+8 | 50° north | 2 | 1 | Dec 22-23 · 5:52 AM GMT+8 · 50° north · 2 an hour dark, 1 in a city |
| Delhi, IN | Dec 22-23 | 5:39 AM GMT+5:30 | 38° north | 2 | 1 | Dec 22-23 · 5:39 AM GMT+5:30 · 38° north · 2 an hour dark, 1 in a city |
| Istanbul, TR | Dec 22-23 | 6:39 AM GMT+3 | 51° north | 1 | 0 | Dec 22-23 · 6:39 AM GMT+3 · 51° north · 1 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| Lagos, NG | Dec 22-23 | 5:37 AM GMT+1 | 15° north | 1 | 0 | Dec 22-23 · 5:37 AM GMT+1 · 15° north · 1 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| Karachi, Sindh, PK | Dec 22-23 | 5:48 AM GMT+5 | 34° north | 2 | 0 | Dec 22-23 · 5:48 AM GMT+5 · 34° north · 2 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| Tokyo, JP | Dec 22-23 | 5:11 AM GMT+9 | 45° north | 2 | 1 | Dec 22-23 · 5:11 AM GMT+9 · 45° north · 2 an hour dark, 1 in a city |
| Moscow, RU | Dec 22-23 | 6:28 AM GMT+3 | 66° north | 1 | 1 | Dec 22-23 · 6:28 AM GMT+3 · 66° north · 1 an hour dark, 1 in a city |
| Mumbai, Maharashtra, IN | Dec 22-23 | 5:46 AM GMT+5:30 | 28° north | 2 | 0 | Dec 22-23 · 5:46 AM GMT+5:30 · 28° north · 2 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| São Paulo, BR | the Little Dipper stays too low | the Little Dipper stays too low | ||||
| Jakarta, ID | the Little Dipper stays too low | the Little Dipper stays too low | ||||
| Cairo, EG | Dec 22-23 | 5:19 AM GMT+2 | 39° north | 1 | 0 | Dec 22-23 · 5:19 AM GMT+2 · 39° north · 1 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| Seoul, KR | Dec 22-23 | 6:07 AM GMT+9 | 47° north | 2 | 1 | Dec 22-23 · 6:07 AM GMT+9 · 47° north · 2 an hour dark, 1 in a city |
| Lima, PE | the Little Dipper stays too low | the Little Dipper stays too low | ||||
| Mexico City, CDMX, MX | Dec 21-22 | 5:43 AM CST | 28° north | 1 | 0 | Dec 21-22 · 5:43 AM CST · 28° north · 1 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh, VN | Dec 22-23 | 4:46 AM GMT+7 | 19° north | 1 | 0 | Dec 22-23 · 4:46 AM GMT+7 · 19° north · 1 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| London, England, GB | Dec 22-23 | 5:53 AM GMT | 62° north | 1 | 0 | Dec 22-23 · 5:53 AM GMT · 62° north · 1 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| Dhaka, BD | Dec 22-23 | 5:16 AM GMT+6 | 33° north | 2 | 0 | Dec 22-23 · 5:16 AM GMT+6 · 33° north · 2 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| Bengaluru, Karnataka, IN | Dec 22-23 | 5:19 AM GMT+5:30 | 21° north | 1 | 0 | Dec 22-23 · 5:19 AM GMT+5:30 · 21° north · 1 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| New York | Dec 21-22 | 5:31 AM EST | 50° north | 1 | 0 | Dec 21-22 · 5:31 AM EST · 50° north · 1 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| Bangkok, TH | Dec 22-23 | 5:15 AM GMT+7 | 22° north | 1 | 0 | Dec 22-23 · 5:15 AM GMT+7 · 22° north · 1 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| Riyadh, SA | Dec 22-23 | 5:09 AM GMT+3 | 34° north | 1 | 0 | Dec 22-23 · 5:09 AM GMT+3 · 34° north · 1 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| Hong Kong, HK | Dec 22-23 | 5:34 AM GMT+8 | 31° north | 2 | 0 | Dec 22-23 · 5:34 AM GMT+8 · 31° north · 2 an hour dark, 0 in a city |
| Bogotá, CO | the Little Dipper stays too low | the Little Dipper 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 Ursids seem to fly out from the Little Dipper, not far from the North Star, 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 Tuttle (8P)
- Speed
- 33 km/s (about 74,000 mph)
- Peak rate, perfect sky
- 10 an hour (IMO)
- Active
- Dec 17 to Dec 26
Each meteor is a grain of dust, most smaller than a grain of sand, left behind by Comet Tuttle (8P). 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.