Check a place and time
No sign-up. Coordinates stay in this browser. This checks position and twilight, not weather or a blocked horizon.
Choose a location to begin.
Compare a night, not a headline rate
Select the Orionids or Geminids, choose your location and set a start time near the shower’s 2026 maximum. The table samples the next twelve hours at one-hour intervals. Start in the evening to compare the hours before dawn.
Look first for a Sun well below the horizon, then a radiant above it. A higher radiant generally gives more of the shower’s meteors a chance to appear in your sky. Moonlight can hide fainter streaks even when those two conditions are good.
A one-hour table is for comparing broad observing windows, not determining exact rise, set or twilight boundaries. Weather, smoke, skyglow and obstructions are not included. Check those separately before making a trip.
Radiant height is not where you must stare
The radiant is the direction the shower’s meteor trails appear to spread from. Its height helps explain why a shower can be quiet early and busier later. If the radiant is below the horizon, most members of the stream cannot enter your visible sky in the usual way.
Once outside, watch a broad area, not one point. Looking some distance away from the radiant can show longer trails. A reclining chair and a comfortable neck are more valuable here than high magnification.
The planner uses each shower’s approximate radiant at maximum. Radiants drift during an active period, so this first version deliberately accepts dates only within three days of the expected 2026 peak. It is not an all-year meteor forecast.
How darkness and the Moon are described
We call the sky “dark by Sun position” when the Sun is more than 18 degrees below the horizon, the conventional boundary of astronomical twilight. This is geometry, not a measurement of actual sky brightness. A city remains bright after astronomical twilight ends.
The Moon column reports the altitude of its center and its illuminated fraction. A Moon below the flat horizon is less troublesome than a bright Moon overhead, but the table does not model scattered moonlight, terrain or exact limb-rise times.
At some latitudes and seasons there may be no fully dark interval in the selected twelve hours. The tool reports that instead of manufacturing a best time. Try another date or accept that twilight limits what you can see.
Why there is no “you will see 73 meteors” number
That would require more than knowing the shower name and your coordinates. The stream’s activity, sky transparency, limiting magnitude, radiant height and your field of view all matter. Even then, a forecast would describe a probability, not a timed procession.
The Geminid guide and Orionid guide explain the expected maximum and the meaning of the published idealized rates. Use those for the shower’s context and this planner for the local geometry.
Method, privacy and a sensible next step
Sun and Moon positions are computed with Astronomy Engine for your selected coordinates and instant. The IMO calendar’s J2000 radiant is precessed and nutated to the date before conversion to your local horizon. The stellar radiant is treated as a distant direction. Standard atmospheric refraction is approximate close to the horizon.
Calculations stay in your browser. The form does not upload or save your coordinates. After comparing the table, use SkyLumi if you want help recognizing Gemini or Orion; the native app does not yet contain this planning table or send meteor alerts.
Write down a useful window, pack for the temperature and put the phone away once you have found your spot. The planner’s job is finished when you are comfortably watching the sky.
Sources and image credits
- International Meteor Organization: 2026 calendar. Printed pages 16 and 20: peak dates and J2000 radiant coordinates for the Orionids and Geminids.
- Astronomy Engine. Sun/Moon ephemerides, equatorial frame transformations and horizon calculations.
- NASA: Geminids. Practical unaided-eye observing.
Written for beginners from the sources above. How we research and correct the library. Found an error? Tell us.