Meteor shower peak times for tonight and the year ahead: the Quadrantids, Lyrids, Eta Aquariids, Perseids, Orionids, Leonids, Geminids and the other major annual showers, each on the timelines of your cities at the moment of its peak.
A shower peaks when the Earth passes through the densest part of the stream of dust left by a comet or an asteroid - one instant for the whole planet. The calendar computes it each year from the solar longitude of the maximum in the International Meteor Organization's working list, so it agrees with the IMO Meteor Shower Calendar to within minutes and never goes out of date.
Each peak is a bar on the timeline for the time its rate stays above half the peak: a few hours for the sharp Quadrantids and Ursids, about a day for the Geminids and Leonids, two days for the Perseids and Orionids, at most five days for the long plateaus of the Eta Aquariids, Southern Delta Aquariids and Taurids. The minor Draconids and Alpha Capricornids are shown for their whole activity period.
Seeing the shower depends on where you are. Meteors appear all over the sky but seem to come from one point, the radiant, and rates are highest when it is high in a dark sky, usually after local midnight. Select a peak for its exact time, the activity period, the zenithal hourly rate, the constellation of the radiant, the hemisphere where it gets higher, how much of the Moon is lit at the peak, the meteors' speed and the parent comet or asteroid.
The strong showers - a zenithal hourly rate of 50 or more - have one colour on the timeline, the minor ones another.
Each shower's peak is a bar on the timeline of every one of your cities, in its local time, covering the hours or days of its strongest rates. The peak is one instant for the whole Earth, but meteors are only visible at night with the radiant above the horizon, so watch on the nights around the peak - for most showers the best hours are after local midnight.
The next event button jumps to the next peak. The calendar has thirteen annual showers; the strongest are the Quadrantids in early January, the Perseids in August and the Geminids in December.
The Geminids are active from 4 to 20 December and peak around 13-14 December. They are best seen from the Northern Hemisphere, but much of the Southern Hemisphere sees them too, with lower rates. Select the peak for its exact time, the Moon and the radiant.
The Eta Aquariids in May and the Southern Delta Aquariids in late July are best seen from the south. The Orionids, Taurids, Leonids and Alpha Capricornids are seen from both hemispheres; the Quadrantids and Ursids are northern showers. Each peak's card says which hemisphere is better placed.
The zenithal hourly rate - how many meteors an observer would count in an hour at the peak under an ideal dark sky with the radiant overhead. Real counts are lower, and a bright Moon hides the fainter meteors; the card shows how much of the Moon is lit at the peak.
In Astronomy. Perfect Clock — a world clock with your calendar across time zones.