When to watch
The International Meteor Organization expects the regular Leonid maximum on 17 November 2026 at about 23:45 UTC; our calculation from the same solar longitude, 235.27°, gives 23:48 UTC. The shower is active from about 6 to 30 November, but its rates rise and fall within a day or two of the peak.
Leo rises in the north-east around midnight, so the Leonids are a shower for the hours before dawn. In Europe and Africa the peak falls around local midnight, and the hours from about 2 a.m. to dawn on 18 November are the best of the year. In the Americas the peak comes on the evening of 17 November, before the radiant rises: the mornings of 17 and 18 November are almost equally good, the night of 17–18 November slightly better in the east, 16–17 November in the west. In South and East Asia the peak falls on the morning of 18 November, so the hours before dawn that day are the ones to choose.
How many you can expect
A zenithal hourly rate of about 15 is what one observer would count under a perfect sky with the radiant overhead. Real counts are lower: the radiant is never overhead for long, and light pollution, twilight and moonlight hide the fainter meteors. The table shows our estimate for the best hour of the best night in a few cities, under a clear sky.
| City | Best night | Suburban sky | Dark site | Moon sets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| London | 17–18 Nov | 2 | 10 | 23:29 |
| Vilnius | 17–18 Nov | 3 | 10 | 23:34 |
| Madrid | 17–18 Nov | 3 | 10 | 01:02 |
| New York | 17–18 Nov | 2 | 8 | 23:55 |
| Los Angeles | 16–17 Nov | 2 | 8 | 23:08 |
| Cairo | 17–18 Nov | 3 | 10 | 23:49 |
| Delhi | 17–18 Nov | 4 | 15 | 00:10 |
| Tokyo | 17–18 Nov | 3 | 10 | 23:11 |
| Sydney | 17–18 Nov | 1 | 3 | 01:37 |
| Cape Town | 17–18 Nov | 1 | 4 | 01:38 |
Meteors per hour in the best hour. Moonset is local time on the best night.
In a city centre, where only the brightest stars show, expect about one an hour. From the southern hemisphere Leo rises later and stays lower, which is why Sydney and Cape Town see only a few even from a dark site.
Where to look
Trace the Leonids backwards and they all point to the radiant in the Sickle of Leo, the backward question mark of stars that ends in Regulus. From mid-northern latitudes the Sickle rises in the north-east between about 10 p.m. and midnight, climbs through the east and south-east, and by dawn stands high in the south, nearly 60° up from London and 70° from New York. The higher it is, the more meteors you see. This year Jupiter and Mars shine next to Regulus at the foot of the Sickle, and the radiant is near its top, about 9° from the bright pair.
You don't need to stare at the radiant. Meteors close to it are short; those 30° to 60° away from it are longer and easier to catch. Look at the darkest, widest part of your sky, about halfway up. Leonids hit the air at about 71 km/s, so they are quick, and the brightest often leave a glowing trail that lingers for a second or more.
Watching from a balcony or a window
- Face east or south. After midnight the radiant climbs from the north-east through the east to high in the south by dawn, so a window or balcony on that side of the house sees the best part of the sky. The Moon sets in the west.
- Turn the lights off behind you and give your eyes 15 to 20 minutes in the dark. Every glance at a bright phone screen starts the wait again; the red night-vision mode of this site (the eye button at the top) helps.
- Expect fewer through a window. A window shows only part of the sky, so you will see a smaller share of the meteors; open it if you can, because glass reflects the room. If you have set up My view, the box above scales the rates to the sky your window or balcony shows.
- Be patient. At two or three meteors an hour from a suburb, give it at least half an hour. No telescope or binoculars are needed; they show too little sky.
The Moon this time
First quarter is on 17 November (UTC), so at the peak the Moon is 55% lit. It sets around midnight — at 23:29 in London and 23:55 in New York on 17 November — and leaves the best hours, from about 2 a.m. to dawn, dark.
Any chance of an outburst?
In 1833, 1866, 1966, 1999, 2001 and 2002 the Earth ran into young, dense trails of dust from the Leonids' parent comet, and observers counted thousands of meteors an hour. 2026 is not such a year. Model calculations by Jérémie Vaubaillon and Mikiya Sato, listed in the IMO's calendar for 2026, have the Earth brushing several old, thin trails between 17 and 19 November: at about 10:30 UTC on the 17th, 21:55 UTC on the 18th, and 03:30–03:50 and 16:30 UTC on the 19th. Neither expects a real outburst, though Sato does not rule out a modest increase. Our estimates do not include these encounters.
Where the Leonids come from
The Leonids are grit shed by comet 55P/Tempel–Tuttle, which goes round the Sun every 33 years. Every November the Earth crosses its orbit, and the particles, most no bigger than a grain of sand, burn up high in the atmosphere. The comet was last near the Sun in 1998 and returns in 2031; in between, the meteors come from old dust spread along its orbit.
How the rates are estimated
We start from the International Meteor Organization's working list for 2026 (zenithal hourly rate about 15, population index 2.5, radiant at right ascension 152° and declination +22°) and scale it for the height of the radiant above your horizon, the faintest stars your sky shows, twilight and moonlight (after the model of Krisciunas and Schaefer). The rise and fall of activity around the peak follows a simple profile. These are estimates for a clear sky: the real shower varies from year to year, and clouds are not included — check the forecast on the Tonight page.
Before dawn on these mornings you will also see four planets: Mercury and Venus low in the south-east, Jupiter and Mars high in Leo. More on Morning planets 2026.