Peaks 13–14 December ZHR 150

The Geminids

The best shower of the year, and it does not come from a comet.

A hundred and fifty an hour at maximum, from a rock that passes closer to the Sun than Mercury and sheds material when it does. The meteors are slow, often yellow, and the radiant is up nearly all night, which is unusual and is half of why the count is so high. It is also December, so dress for it.

Peak: 13–14 December, most years
Zenithal hourly rate: 150
Radiant: Gemini, near Castor
Debris from: asteroid 3200 Phaethon

Where you can see it

The radiant rises everywhere north of 57°S. From mid-northern latitudes (40°N) it climbs to about 83°. From mid-southern latitudes (35°S) it climbs to about 22°.

The height is the radiant's, the point the meteors seem to come from, on the peak night, counting only the hours when the Sun is at least 12° below the horizon. The lower it is, the fewer meteors reach you: at 30° up you would see about half the rate above, before the Moon and your own sky take their share.

The Moon at each of the next four peaks

The Moon's phase at the Geminids maximum, 2026 to 2029
Maximum	Moon	What that means
14 December 2026	Waxing Crescent, 21%	A crescent that sets in the evening, well before the shower's best hours.
14 December 2027	Full Moon, 100%	A bright Moon through the pre-dawn hours, which is exactly when the rate peaks.
14 December 2028	Waning Crescent, 6%	With effectively no Moon tonight, this is as good as the Perseids gets.
14 December 2029	Waxing Gibbous, 62%	Half-lit and setting around midnight — the second half of the night is yours.

The Moon is taken at 00:00 UTC on the morning of maximum. Whether it is actually above your horizon at three in the morning depends on where you are standing — the live calendar works that out for your own location. Showers are almost all better after midnight, when your side of the planet turns to face the direction of travel and starts sweeping meteors up instead of waiting to be caught.

What you need

Nothing. Meteors cross too much sky too fast for binoculars or a telescope to be anything but a handicap — the equipment for this is a coat, a chair that tips back, and twenty minutes for your eyes to adapt. Look up and slightly away from the radiant rather than straight at it; meteors near the radiant are coming at you end-on and leave the shortest trails.

Peak night and rate: International Meteor Organization, Meteor Shower Calendar (opens in a new tab). Moon phases computed here.

The Geminids

Where you can see it

The Moon at each of the next four peaks

What you need

Settings

Gear that makes it better

Where these numbers come from