Sky Calendar 2026
Every dated event of the year: 10 meteor shower peaks, 13 full moons, 12 new moons, 4 eclipses, and the two equinoxes and two solstices. Instants quoted from the US Naval Observatory and NASA.
What is next in the sky
Times on Eastern time, state pages carry your ownOrionids peak
Dates on this page are stated on Eastern time, because an eclipse and a full moon happen at one instant for the whole world and that instant has to be printed on somebody’s clock. Twice a year it lands on a different calendar date in Hawaii than in Maine. Every state page recomputes the instant on its own clock and shows the local time.
2026 on one strip
The clustering is real rather than an artefact of the drawing. Meteor showers bunch in the last quarter of the year because that is when the Earth crosses the richest debris streams, and the two best of them, the Geminids and the Perseids, sit in December and August at opposite ends of what it costs to stand outside for an hour. The moons space themselves evenly at a little under thirty days because that is what a lunar month is. Eclipses come in pairs about two weeks apart, a solar one and a lunar one, because that is how the Moon’s orbit crosses the plane of the Earth’s.
One date on the 2026 strip carries three events at once, and it is the best night of the year because of it. On August 12 the moon is new, the Perseids peak, and a total solar eclipse crosses the northern Atlantic. A new moon on the Perseid peak is the difference between counting twenty an hour and counting sixty, and it lands that way on this shower roughly once a decade. The eclipse is only a partial from the United States and misses most of the country, but the moon being exactly where it has to be for an eclipse is the same fact that makes the night dark.
- Oct212026
Orionids peak
Up to about 20 an hour from a properly dark site, radiating from Orion, near the red star Betelgeuse.
in 2d - Oct262026
Full moon
About 229,231 miles away, number 4 of 13 for closeness this year.
in 7d - Nov52026
Taurids (Southern and Northern) peak
Up to about 5 an hour from a properly dark site, radiating from Taurus, near the Pleiades.
in 17d - Nov92026
New moon
The darkest nights of the month, and the week either side of it is when faint things are worth chasing.
in 21d - Nov172026
Leonids peak
Up to about 15 an hour from a properly dark site, radiating from Leo.
in 29d - Nov242026
Full moon
About 224,131 miles away, number 2 of 13 for closeness this year.
in 36d - Dec82026
New moon
The darkest nights of the month, and the week either side of it is when faint things are worth chasing.
in 50d - Dec132026
Geminids peak
Up to about 150 an hour from a properly dark site, radiating from Gemini, near the bright star Castor.
in 55d
Where these numbers come from. Moon phases, equinox and solstice instants, and every rise, set and twilight time on this page are quoted from the US Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department. Eclipse type, magnitude and geographic region come from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Eclipse Web Site. Both are US Government works in the public domain. Hours of astronomical darkness and the Moon’s distance are computed by MyWild and labelled as such everywhere they appear. Tables last rebuilt 2026-09-04.
The 10 peaks of 2026
A peak is a night rather than a moment for all of these except the Quadrantids, whose maximum is only about six hours wide and therefore misses most of the country most years. The dates below are the evening date of the peak night, so a peak on December 22 means that evening running into the small hours of the following morning. The rate quoted is the zenithal hourly rate, which is what a perfect dark sky with the radiant overhead would give you. From a real place on a real night, expect a third to a half of it, and less than that if the moon is up.
- Jan3
Quadrantids peak
Up to about 80 an hour from a properly dark site, radiating from Boötes.
- Apr22
Lyrids peak
Up to about 18 an hour from a properly dark site, radiating from Lyra, near the bright star Vega.
- May5
Eta Aquariids peak
Up to about 50 an hour from a properly dark site, radiating from Aquarius.
- Aug12
Perseids peak
Up to about 100 an hour from a properly dark site, radiating from Perseus.
- Oct8
Draconids peak
Up to about 5 an hour from a properly dark site, radiating from Draco.
- Oct21
Orionids peak
Up to about 20 an hour from a properly dark site, radiating from Orion, near the red star Betelgeuse.
in 2d - Nov5
Taurids (Southern and Northern) peak
Up to about 5 an hour from a properly dark site, radiating from Taurus, near the Pleiades.
in 17d - Nov17
Leonids peak
Up to about 15 an hour from a properly dark site, radiating from Leo.
in 29d - Dec13
Geminids peak
Up to about 150 an hour from a properly dark site, radiating from Gemini, near the bright star Castor.
in 55d - Dec22
Ursids peak
Up to about 10 an hour from a properly dark site, radiating from Ursa Minor, near the Little Dipper's bowl.
in 64d
Which of these is actually worth setting an alarm for depends entirely on where you are and what the moon is doing, and both of those are on the state pages. For tonight specifically, the meteor shower tonight page carries cloud cover as well.
13 full moons, ranked by distance
The Moon’s orbit is an ellipse, so some full moons happen close to the Earth and some happen far away, and the near ones genuinely are bigger and brighter. This site computes the distance at each full moon instant and ranks them. Supermoon is not an astronomical term: no federal source publishes one, and the two definitions in popular circulation disagree with each other about which moons qualify, so the closest full moon of the year is named here by its measured distance instead. The closest full moon of 2026 is the one on December 23.
Longer bar means closer, which means bigger and brighter. The spread across 2026 is about 30,769 miles, which is roughly a tenth of the distance to the Moon and is why one full moon looks noticeably larger than another. These distances are computed by MyWild from the standard lunar series, not published by USNO, which gives the phase instants only.
The new moons matter more than the full ones if you care about anything faint. A new moon is not an event you can see, it is the absence of one: the moon is between the Earth and the Sun and the night is as dark as that month gets. The week either side of each new moon below is when the Milky Way, faint meteors and everything else worth a drive are actually visible.
- Jan18
New moon
The darkest nights of the month, and the week either side of it is when faint things are worth chasing.
- Feb17
New moon
The darkest nights of the month, and the week either side of it is when faint things are worth chasing.
- Mar18
New moon
The darkest nights of the month, and the week either side of it is when faint things are worth chasing.
- Apr17
New moon
The darkest nights of the month, and the week either side of it is when faint things are worth chasing.
- May16
New moon
The darkest nights of the month, and the week either side of it is when faint things are worth chasing.
- Jun14
New moon
The darkest nights of the month, and the week either side of it is when faint things are worth chasing.
- Jul14
New moon
The darkest nights of the month, and the week either side of it is when faint things are worth chasing.
- Aug12
New moon
The darkest nights of the month, and the week either side of it is when faint things are worth chasing.
- Sep10
New moon
The darkest nights of the month, and the week either side of it is when faint things are worth chasing.
- Oct10
New moon
The darkest nights of the month, and the week either side of it is when faint things are worth chasing.
- Nov9
New moon
The darkest nights of the month, and the week either side of it is when faint things are worth chasing.
in 21d - Dec8
New moon
The darkest nights of the month, and the week either side of it is when faint things are worth chasing.
in 50d
4 eclipses in 2026, 3 of them over the United States
An eclipse is the one sky event where the difference between being in the right country and the wrong one is total. The list below carries every eclipse NASA publishes for 2026, with what it is, how deep it goes and where on Earth it falls. Whether it clears the horizon from your own state is on the state page, worked out from the Naval Observatory’s answer for that state’s reference city rather than from the map.
- Magnitude
- 0.963
- Saros
- 121
- NASA lists it over
- s Argentina & Chile, s Africa, Antarctica
Looking at a partial solar eclipse will damage your eyes. There is no moment during a partial eclipse when it is safe to look without a certified solar filter, and sunglasses, exposed film and smoked glass are not filters. A pinhole projector costs nothing and is entirely safe. A lunar eclipse is different and needs nothing at all.
- Magnitude
- 1.039
- Saros
- 126
- NASA lists it over
- n N. America, w Africa, Europe
Looking at a partial solar eclipse will damage your eyes. There is no moment during a partial eclipse when it is safe to look without a certified solar filter, and sunglasses, exposed film and smoked glass are not filters. A pinhole projector costs nothing and is entirely safe. A lunar eclipse is different and needs nothing at all.
- Magnitude
- 1.1507
- Saros
- 133
- NASA lists it over
- e Asia, Australia, Pacific, Americas
- Magnitude
- 0.9299
- Saros
- 138
- NASA lists it over
- e Pacific, Americas, Europe, Africa
The four turning points
- Mar20
Spring equinox
Day and night are about the same length, and from here the evenings stay light noticeably later each week.
- Jun21
Summer solstice
It is the longest day of the year, and the days start getting shorter again after it.
- Sep22
Autumn equinox
Day and night are about the same length, and from here the evenings get dark noticeably earlier each week.
- Dec21
Winter solstice
It is the shortest day of the year, and the days start getting longer again after it.
in 63d
The solstices and equinoxes are the only events on this calendar that change what every other night of the year looks like, which is why the state pages measure their darkness against them. The gap between the shortest night in Anchorage and the shortest night in Jacksonville is the whole argument for having fifty pages instead of one.
The same dates, very different nights
Every date on this page is the same in all fifty states, because the sky does not care about state lines. Everything else differs. On the Perseid peak in August, Anchorage gets no astronomical darkness at all, Minneapolis gets a little under six hours of it and Jacksonville gets nearly eight. On the Eta Aquariid peak in May the moon spoils the entire dark window in Phoenix and leaves nearly half of it alone in Minneapolis. Pick a state and the page gives you its own sunset, its own moonrise and its own hours of real darkness for every event on this list.
This is the calendar. The site has the rest of the sky too.
- Meteor shower tonight answers whether a shower is running right now, with cloud cover. This page answers when the next one peaks.
- Stargazing forecast tonight answers whether tonight is worth going out at all.
- Milky Way season is the dark sky season rather than a dated event: which months the core is up and how dark it needs to be.
- Northern lights forecast is space weather, which has no dates at all and is the one sky event nobody can put on a calendar.