How to watch a meteor shower

7 min read

Key facts

Equipment needed	None; just your eyes, a reclining chair and warm clothes
Best time of night	After midnight until dawn, usually in the last hours before twilight
Dark adaptation	About 20–30 minutes away from screens and lights
Where to look	About halfway up the sky, roughly 45° from the radiant
Biggest spoiler	A bright Moon, which can hide most of the fainter meteors
Realistic counts	Often a third to a half of the ZHR, or less, from suburban sites
Strongest showers	Quadrantids, Perseids, Geminids
Camera basics	Wide lens, tripod, 15–25 second exposures, many frames

In short

Shower meteors seem to come from one point, the radiant, but they can appear anywhere in the sky.
The zenithal hourly rate (ZHR) is an ideal figure; under real skies you will see fewer.
The hours after midnight are best, because your side of Earth then faces forward into the debris.
A dark site and a moonless night matter more than anything you can buy.
Get comfortable, be patient and give your eyes at least 20 minutes to adapt.

The radiant: where meteors seem to come from

During a meteor shower, Earth passes through a stream of dust left by a comet or, sometimes, an asteroid. The grains burn up high in the atmosphere as meteors, often called shooting stars. Our separate guide on meteors covers the science; this one is about watching.

Because the particles travel in parallel, their trails seem to spread out from one spot, the radiant, just as parallel railway tracks seem to meet in the distance. The shower is named after the constellation holding the radiant, such as Perseus for the Perseids.

You do not need to stare at the radiant. Meteors close to it look short, so it is better to watch a patch of sky about 45° away, where trails appear longer.

ZHR vs what you will really see

Shower forecasts usually quote the zenithal hourly rate, or ZHR. It is the number of meteors one observer would see in an hour under a perfectly dark sky with the radiant straight overhead.

Real conditions almost never match that. The radiant is often lower in the sky, light pollution and moonlight hide faint meteors, and part of your view is blocked by trees or buildings.

As a rough guide, from a dark rural site you might see a third to a half of the ZHR, and from a suburban garden much less. A ZHR of 100 can mean 20 to 50 meteors an hour in practice, which is still a fine show.

Timing and the Moon

Meteor rates generally rise after midnight. In the early morning, your side of Earth faces the direction of our orbital motion, so it scoops up more particles, like a car windscreen in the rain.

The radiant also climbs higher as the night goes on, which adds to the count. For most showers the best window is from about 1 a.m. until the first light of dawn; the Geminids are an exception and are good from late evening.

Check the Moon's phase before you plan. A full or gibbous Moon brightens the sky and can wipe out all but the brightest meteors; in that case, keep the Moon behind you or out of your field of view.

How to watch: comfort first

Find a dark place with a wide view of the sky, away from streetlights. Lie on a reclining chair, a sleeping mat or a blanket so you can look up for a long time without neck strain.

Nights get cold, even in August. Bring more layers than you think you need, a hat, a warm drink and something to keep away dew. A red flashlight keeps your night vision; white phone screens ruin it in seconds.

Allow at least 20–30 minutes for your eyes to adapt, and plan to watch for an hour or more. Meteors often come in clusters with quiet gaps, so patience pays off.

Photographing meteors

Meteors are unpredictable, so the trick is to take many photos and hope a few catch a trail. Put a camera on a sturdy tripod, use a wide-angle lens at its widest aperture, and focus manually on a bright star.

Exposures of about 15–25 seconds at a high ISO work well; set the camera to shoot continuously with an interval timer or remote. Aim about 45° from the radiant and include some landscape for scale.

Many recent phones have night modes that can capture bright meteors. Expect lots of empty frames: a few hundred shots may contain only a handful of meteors, which is normal.

A yearly meteor shower calendar

Quadrantids: peak about 3–4 January, ZHR about 80–120, very short peak of a few hours. Lyrids: peak about 22 April, ZHR about 18. Eta Aquariids: peak about 6 May, ZHR about 50, best from the Southern Hemisphere.

Southern Delta Aquariids: peak about 30 July, ZHR about 25. Perseids: peak about 12–13 August, ZHR about 100, warm summer nights in the north. Draconids: peak about 8 October, usually weak but occasionally surprising.

Orionids: peak about 21 October, ZHR about 20, debris from Halley's Comet. Leonids: peak about 17 November, ZHR about 15. Geminids: peak about 13–14 December, ZHR about 150, often the year's best. Ursids: peak about 22 December, ZHR about 10.

Peak dates shift by a day or so from year to year. Check a current calendar, such as the American Meteor Society or the International Meteor Organization, for the exact peak and Moon phase.