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Leonid Meteor Shower 2026: When and Where to Watch

Published September 28, 2026

The Leonid meteor shower peaks the night of November 17 into the early morning of November 18, 2026, and this is a good year to actually see it: a thin waxing crescent Moon sets in the early evening, leaving the whole midnight-to-dawn window dark, per Farmers' Almanac . Expect a modest but real show, 10 to 15 meteors an hour under ideal conditions, radiating from the constellation Leo, per the American Meteor Society (AMS) , and pairing that dark sky with a certified dark-sky park in the US or Canada is the single biggest thing you can do to see more of them.

When the Leonids peak in 2026

What Detail
Peak night November 17 to 18, 2026
Best viewing window Midnight to about 5:30 a.m. local time
Radiant Constellation Leo, near the star Algieba
Parent body Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle
Typical rate (ZHR) 10 to 15 meteors per hour
Moon on peak night Waxing crescent, about 6% illuminated, sets early evening

The AMS meteor shower calendar and the International Meteor Organization (IMO) both track the Leonids as an annual mid-November shower, active for about three weeks around the peak but only worth planning a night around during the peak itself. Visibility spans the entire US and Canada; the meteors are just as visible from Ontario or Alberta as from Arizona or Texas, with the radiant climbing highest in the pre-dawn hours everywhere, per Farmers' Almanac . For a fresher, night-of read closer to the date, check our Nightly News, and see the full year of shower dates in our meteor shower calendar.

The Moon cooperates this year

The single biggest variable in any meteor shower is moonlight, and 2026 is a favorable year for the Leonids. The Moon is a waxing crescent at roughly 6 percent illumination on peak night and sets in the early evening, well before Leo has even climbed into good viewing position, per Farmers' Almanac . That means the entire recommended midnight-to-dawn window is essentially moon-free, unlike showers that peak near a full Moon and get washed out no matter how clear the sky is. The next full Moon, the Beaver Moon, does not arrive until November 24, 2026, a full week after the Leonids peak, so there is no lingering twilight glow to fight either. Check our live moon phase tool for moonrise and moonset at your own location on the night you plan to watch, and see our moon phases guide for how these phases work.

Finding the radiant in Leo

Every Leonid meteor appears to streak away from a single point in the constellation Leo, near the star Algieba, because the meteoroids are traveling on near-parallel paths through space and perspective makes them seem to diverge from one spot, per Farmers' Almanac . That radiant point rises around midnight and climbs highest in the sky just before dawn, which is exactly why the best Leonid viewing comes in the second half of the night rather than right after sunset. You do not need to stare directly at Leo. Meteors can streak across any part of the sky; knowing where the radiant sits just helps you understand which direction the show is "coming from" and confirms you are watching real Leonids rather than sporadic background meteors. If you are new to picking out constellations, our constellations guide walks through how to star-hop to Leo and other easy landmarks.

The parent comet: 55P/Tempel-Tuttle

The Leonids exist because Earth's orbit crosses the debris trail of comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle every November. The comet was discovered independently twice within weeks: by Wilhelm Tempel on December 19, 1865, and by Horace Parnell Tuttle on January 6, 1866, per Wikipedia . It completes one orbit around the Sun roughly every 33.3 years, and its orbit intersects Earth's own orbit closely enough that the dust and rock it sheds during each close pass stays concentrated into distinct streams rather than spreading out evenly, per Wikipedia . Because its orbit is retrograde (it circles the Sun in the opposite direction Earth does), Leonid meteors slam into the atmosphere at about 70 kilometers per second, among the fastest of any annual shower, which is part of why Leonid fireballs tend to look especially bright and leave long, glowing trails, per Wikipedia . The comet itself last passed through the inner solar system in 1998 and is not due back until early 2031, per EarthSky ; the meteors we see every November are simply Earth catching up with material it left behind on earlier passes, some of it centuries old.

When the Leonids became a storm: 1833, 1966, 2001

Most years the Leonids are a modest, pleasant shower. About every 33 years, when Earth happens to plow through an unusually dense, freshly laid part of Tempel-Tuttle's debris stream instead of just grazing the outer edge of it, the Leonids erupt into a true meteor storm, and three of those storms are especially well documented.

1833 is the storm that started it all, still remembered as one of the most intense meteor displays ever recorded. Observers across North America, east of the Rocky Mountains, watched rates exceeding 100,000 meteors an hour at the peak, with one estimate putting the total above 240,000 meteors over the roughly nine hours the storm lasted, per Wikipedia . The display was so overwhelming that it helped kick off the modern scientific study of meteor showers, since it was the first time observers connected a specific comet's orbit to a predictable meteor event, per ESA .

1966 brought a repeat performance almost exactly 33 years later. Observers across the Americas recorded peak rates exceeding 40 meteors per second, or roughly 144,000 meteors an hour, over a burst lasting only about 15 to 20 minutes, per Wikipedia . It remains the most intense Leonid storm of the 20th century and is often described as the most spectacular meteor storm anyone alive today is likely to have personally witnessed, per ESA .

2001 produced a smaller but still dramatic storm, with rates reaching up to about 3,000 meteors an hour over North America and Asia across two separate peaks in the same year, driven by dust Tempel-Tuttle had shed on its 1767 and 1866 passes, per Wikipedia . It was the last Leonid storm to date and a reminder that these outbursts do not follow a perfectly clean 33-year clock; they depend on exactly which old debris filament Earth happens to cross in a given year.

None of that is expected in 2026. This is an ordinary year for the Leonids, with Earth passing through the thin, well-spread-out part of the debris stream rather than a dense filament, which is exactly why AMS and IMO forecast the routine 10 to 15 per hour rather than anything storm-like.

Realistic 2026 rates: ZHR versus what you will actually see

The 10 to 15 per hour figure quoted above is the zenithal hourly rate (ZHR), defined as the number of meteors a single observer would see in an hour if the radiant sat directly overhead under perfect, dark-sky conditions, per the technical definition . That is a best-case number, not a promise, and in practice your actual count depends heavily on three things: how high Leo has climbed above the horizon (worst right when it rises, best in the pre-dawn hours), how dark your sky actually is, and plain luck, since meteors arrive in clusters rather than evenly spaced. Because 2026's Moon is nearly absent during the viewing window, the darkness variable comes down almost entirely to where you watch from. A rural observer under a genuinely dark sky can expect to see a meaningful share of that 10 to 15 per hour ZHR once the radiant is well up before dawn; someone watching from a suburban backyard under typical light pollution will likely see a fraction of that. That gap, more than the modest headline number, is the main reason to drive to a certified dark sky location for this particular shower.

Best hours and how to watch

The Leonids reward patience and a late night more than any special gear. Plan to watch between midnight and roughly 5:30 a.m. local time, when Leo has climbed well up the eastern and southeastern sky, per Farmers' Almanac . No telescope or binoculars help here; they narrow your field of view to a tiny patch of sky when the goal is to take in as much sky as possible. Give your eyes 20 to 30 minutes to fully dark-adapt, away from your phone screen, and lie back in a reclining chair or on a blanket so you can comfortably watch the whole dome of sky rather than one fixed patch. Dress for a cold mid-November night wherever you are, bring something hot to drink, and get as far from artificial light as you safely can, since even a single porch light nearby can cost you the faintest third of the meteors. If this is a first shower for the family, our stargazing for beginners guide has a simpler starter checklist, and our events calendar lists every other sky event worth planning around this season.

Best US dark-sky places for mid-November

Pairing the Leonids with a certified dark sky park, rather than a backyard or campground with nearby lighting, is the biggest single upgrade available to you this year. Here are strong US picks for a mid-November trip, drawn from our full places directory.

Place State Typical mid-November conditions Why it works for the Leonids
Grand Canyon National Park Arizona Cold, often near or below freezing after dark on the rim; usually dry and clear Rim skies reach Bortle 1 to 2 darkness and the National Park Service actively promotes night-sky viewing to its roughly 6 million annual visitors, per DarkSky International
Big Bend National Park Texas Mild desert days, cool clear nights, rarely freezing One of the darkest national parks in the US, tucked in the "Big Bend" of the Rio Grande along the Mexican border, per DarkSky International
Chaco Culture National Historical Park New Mexico Cold high-desert nights, frequently clear Strict lighting rules protecting its ancestral Puebloan ruins have kept the skies dark since well before formal certification, per DarkSky International
Big Cypress National Preserve Florida Mild and humid, rarely cold, essentially no freeze risk A warm-climate alternative for anyone who wants to skip the cold entirely, about 72 kilometers west of Miami, per DarkSky International
Cherry Springs State Park Pennsylvania Cold, sometimes well below freezing; dress heavily Open year-round, with 60 to 85 nights of ideal viewing conditions annually, the classic East Coast dark-sky pick, per DarkSky International

Best Canadian dark-sky places for mid-November

Canada has its own strong lineup for this shower, certified through DarkSky International and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) .

Place Province Typical mid-November conditions Why it works for the Leonids
Point Pelee National Park Ontario Milder than most of Canada; cool but usually above freezing Canada's southernmost mainland point, and one of the country's easiest dark skies to reach for a mid-November trip, per Wikipedia
Mont-Mégantic International Dark Sky Reserve Quebec Cold, often below freezing at night The world's first International Dark Sky Reserve, with strict regional lighting rules and the ASTROLab observatory on site, per DarkSky International
Waterton Lakes National Park Alberta Cold, with an early mountain winter already possible by mid-November Certified jointly with Montana's Glacier National Park as the first trans-boundary International Dark Sky Park, per DarkSky International
Jasper National Park Alberta Cold Rocky Mountain nights, possible early snow One of the largest Dark-Sky Preserves in the world at designation, deep in the Canadian Rockies, per background on the park

Whichever side of the border you are on, check your local forecast the same week you plan to go; a clear, moonless sky like this year's Leonids offer is only useful if the weather cooperates too. For lodging and camping options tied to these and other certified sites, browse the full places directory.

Quick answers

When do the Leonids peak in 2026? The night of November 17 into the early morning of November 18, 2026, with the best viewing between roughly midnight and 5:30 a.m. local time, per Farmers' Almanac .

Will the Moon ruin the 2026 Leonids? No. The Moon is a waxing crescent at about 6 percent illumination and sets in the early evening on peak night, leaving the entire midnight-to-dawn window dark, per Farmers' Almanac .

How many meteors per hour will I actually see in 2026? AMS lists a typical zenithal hourly rate of 10 to 15 per hour; a dark, rural sky under this year's near-moonless conditions should get you close to that, while a light-polluted sky will show far fewer, per the technical ZHR explanation .

What causes the Leonid meteor shower? Earth crossing the debris trail of comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle, which orbits the Sun roughly every 33.3 years and leaves fresh dust and rock behind each pass, per Wikipedia .

Have the Leonids ever produced a meteor storm? Yes, most famously in 1833 and 1966, both with rates estimated above 100,000 meteors an hour, and again in 2001 with rates up to about 3,000 per hour over North America and Asia, per Wikipedia .

Where is the best place to watch in the US and Canada? Any certified dark sky park beats a backyard. Grand Canyon and Chaco Culture in the US, and Point Pelee or Mont-Mégantic in Canada, are strong mid-November picks; see the full tables above and the complete places directory for more.

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