Sky Calendar 2026 in North Carolina
Every dated sky event of the year, with sunset, moonrise and hours of real darkness worked out for Charlotte. The dates are the same everywhere. What happens on the night is not.
What is next over North Carolina
Times for Charlotte, on North Carolina’s own clockOrionids peak
Every clock time on this page is the Naval Observatory's own answer for Charlotte, read for that exact calendar date on that city's clock rather than interpolated from a national figure.
How dark it actually gets in North Carolina
North Carolina sits in the middle of the country's darkness range, with 5h 53m of true astronomical darkness at Charlotte on the June solstice and 11h 12m on the December one. Summer peaks are workable and winter peaks are generous, so which shower is worth the drive comes down to the moon rather than the season. The darkest sky the state has easy access to is Cape Lookout National Seashore, which is where the faint half of this calendar is actually worth chasing.
Sunset is not darkness. After the sun goes down the sky keeps giving off light for well over an hour, and the point at which it stops, and faint things become visible, is when the sun is more than eighteen degrees below the horizon. How long that lasts is a function of latitude and time of year, and it is the single biggest difference between one state’s night and another’s.
Astronomical darkness means the sun is more than 18 degrees below the horizon at Charlotte, which is when the sky stops contributing any light of its own. This figure is computed by MyWild, not published by USNO: the Naval Observatory’s daily tables carry civil twilight, which is the sun only 6 degrees down and a good deal brighter.
Astronomical darkness means the sun is more than 18 degrees below the horizon at Charlotte, which is when the sky stops contributing any light of its own. This figure is computed by MyWild, not published by USNO: the Naval Observatory’s daily tables carry civil twilight, which is the sun only 6 degrees down and a good deal brighter.
That spread is why the same meteor shower is a different proposition in North Carolina than it is three states away. A shower that peaks in June has a short window to work with here and one that peaks in December has hours. The table below applies the state's own numbers to every peak of the year.
The best meteor night in North Carolina this year is the Geminids
On the night of December 13 the sun sets at 17:12 at Charlotte, the sky goes properly dark for 11h 11m, and the moon leaves about 76 percent of that alone. Against a shower that can reach around 150 an hour from a dark site, that is the combination worth driving for.
| Shower | Peak night | Sunset | Dark for | Moon lit | Moon free | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quadrantids | Jan 3 | 5:24 PM | 11h 08m | 100% | 0h 00m | Poor, the moon is up for nearly all of it |
| Lyrids | Apr 22 | 8:02 PM | 7h 36m | 35% | 1h 34m | Poor, the moon is up for nearly all of it |
| Eta Aquariids | May 5 | 8:13 PM | 7h 02m | 86% | 2h 27m | Fair, the moon takes a good part of the night |
| Perseids | Aug 12 | 8:15 PM | 7h 19m | 0% | 7h 19m | Excellent, the moon is near new |
| Draconids | Oct 8 | 6:57 PM | 9h 39m | 4% | 9h 39m | Excellent, the moon is near new |
| Orionids | Oct 21 | 6:41 PM | 10h 05m | 78% | 0h 00m | Poor, the moon is up for nearly all of it |
| Taurids (Southern and Northern) | Nov 5 | 5:25 PM | 10h 32m | 13% | 9h 22m | Excellent, the moon is out of the way |
| Leonids | Nov 17 | 5:16 PM | 10h 49m | 52% | 4h 31m | Fair, the moon takes a good part of the night |
| Geminids | Dec 13 | 5:12 PM | 11h 11m | 18% | 8h 32m | Good, most of the dark window is moon free |
| Ursids | Dec 22 | 5:15 PM | 11h 12m | 97% | 0h 00m | Poor, the moon is up for nearly all of it |
Moon lit is the illuminated fraction USNO publishes for that night. Moon free is the part of the dark window with the moon below the horizon, which matters more than the phase: a bright moon that sets at eleven costs you nothing after eleven. For tonight rather than the year, use the meteor shower tonight page, which adds cloud cover.
2 of 2026's eclipses reach North Carolina
Visibility here is not read off a map. For a solar eclipse it is the Naval Observatory’s own answer to a query at Charlotte’s coordinates, and an eclipse it calls not visible from there is not visible from there. For a lunar eclipse it is whether the moon is above the horizon at Charlotte at the instant of greatest eclipse, from USNO moonrise and moonset against NASA’s contact time.
- Magnitude
- 0.963
- Saros
- 121
- NASA lists it over
- s Argentina & Chile, s Africa, Antarctica
- From this state
- Not visible
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
- From this state
- Not visible
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
- From this state
- The moon is up at greatest eclipse
- Magnitude
- 0.9299
- Saros
- 138
- NASA lists it over
- e Pacific, Americas, Europe, Africa
- From this state
- The moon is up at greatest eclipse
2026 over Charlotte
- Jan3
Quadrantids peak
Up to about 80 an hour from a properly dark site, radiating from Boötes.
- Mar3
Total lunar eclipse
The moon is above the horizon at 42 of the fifty state reference cities at greatest eclipse.
- Mar20
Spring equinox
Day and night are about the same length, and from here the evenings stay light noticeably later each week.
- 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.
- May31
Full moon
About 252,355 miles away, number 13 of 13 for closeness this year.
- Jun21
Summer solstice
It is the longest day of the year, and the days start getting shorter again after it.
- Aug12
Perseids peak
Up to about 100 an hour from a properly dark site, radiating from Perseus.
- Aug12
Total solar eclipse
Visible in partial phase from 20 of the fifty state reference cities on this site.
- Aug28
Partial lunar eclipse
The moon is above the horizon at 48 of the fifty state reference cities at greatest eclipse.
- Sep22
Autumn equinox
Day and night are about the same length, and from here the evenings get dark noticeably earlier each week.
- Oct21
Orionids peak
Up to about 20 an hour from a properly dark site, radiating from Orion, near the red star Betelgeuse.
in 2d - 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 - Dec21
Winter solstice
It is the shortest day of the year, and the days start getting longer again after it.
in 63d - Dec23
Full moon
The closest full moon of 2026, about 221,586 miles away.
in 65d
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.
Nearby states
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 in North Carolina is the dark sky season rather than a dated event: which months the core is up over North Carolina 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.
North Carolina's dark sky reference on this site is Cape Lookout National Seashore, and the Milky Way season page for North Carolina carries the months and the nightly windows for the one thing on this calendar that genuinely needs a dark sky rather than just a clear one.