Geminid meteor shower 2026
The Geminids return on 4 December and peak on the night of 13 to 14 December 2026. From New York the best time that night is about 02:40 EST, with up to 117 meteors an hour from a dark site.
The peak night around the world
The best time to watch on the peak night in twelve cities, each worked out for that city's own sky, with the meteors an hour you can expect from a dark site and where the Moon is at that time. Times are local.
| Place | Peak night | Best time | Meteors an hourfrom a dark site | Moon then |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LondonUnited Kingdom | 13–14 Dec | 02:55 GMT | up to 93 | 21% lit, down |
| New YorkUnited States | 13–14 Dec | 02:40 EST | up to 117 | 23% lit, down |
| Los AngelesUnited States | 13–14 Dec | 02:35 PST | up to 131 | 24% lit, down |
| TorontoCanada | 13–14 Dec | 03:05 EST | up to 117 | 23% lit, down |
| SydneyAustralia | 14–15 Dec | 02:15 AEDT | up to 51 | 26% lit, down |
| DelhiIndia | 14–15 Dec | 00:45 IST | up to 91 | 27% lit, down |
| TokyoJapan | 14–15 Dec | 00:00 JST | up to 127 | 26% lit, down |
| BerlinGermany | 13–14 Dec | 03:00 CET | up to 89 | 21% lit, down |
| RomeItaly | 13–14 Dec | 03:00 CET | up to 93 | 21% lit, down |
| JohannesburgSouth Africa | 13–14 Dec | 02:25 SAST | up to 46 | 21% lit, down |
| São PauloBrazil | 13–14 Dec | 02:25 BRT | up to 60 | 22% lit, down |
| DubaiUnited Arab Emirates | 14–15 Dec | 00:50 GST | up to 80 | 28% lit, down |
Peak night in New York, hour by hour
Shower meteors an hour you can expect from a dark site through the peak night, after allowing for the radiant's height, twilight and the Moon. A suburb shows roughly a third to a half of that, a city centre roughly a tenth to a fifth.
Where to look
The Geminid radiant lies in Gemini, close to the bright star Castor. From New York it rises at 17:37, and at the best time on the peak night, 02:40, it is 78° up in the south-west. Face that way and look about halfway up.
- Geminids appear anywhere. Near the radiant they are short; far from it they leave long, slow trails. Trace any of them back and it points to Castor and Pollux, the Twins.
- Give your eyes 20 minutes to adapt to the dark, and keep your phone on the Meteor Tracker's red-light field mode.
- Lie back on a reclining chair rather than craning your neck. No telescope or binoculars needed.
- Watch for at least half an hour. Meteors come in bursts, with quiet spells in between.
About the Geminids
Every December, Earth runs through the dust of 3200 Phaethon, a rocky body that looks like an asteroid but sheds dust like a comet. The grains are denser than comet dust and meet Earth at only about 35 km/s, so Geminids are slow and bright, and many glow white or yellow as they cross the sky.
The radiant sits close to Castor, one of the two bright stars that mark the heads of the Twins in Gemini. It rises in the early evening, so the Geminids are one of the few showers worth watching before midnight, and it is highest at about 2 am. The radiant is well north of the celestial equator, so the shower is best from the northern hemisphere, though it can be seen from much of the southern hemisphere too, with fewer meteors.
The Geminids are the strongest of the yearly showers, with up to about 150 an hour at the peak under a perfect sky, and they have grown stronger since they were first noticed in the 1860s. Phaethon itself is a few kilometres across and takes 1.4 years to go round the Sun, passing closer to it than Mercury does.