If you want To get you started on stargazing in 2025, it’s still possible to see some of the best meteor showers of the year. Also known as shooting stars, meteors occur when Earth’s orbital path crosses a path of debris left behind by a comet and this material burns up in Earth’s atmosphere. Watching a meteor shower is one of the most accessible ways to experience the night sky.
The next shower will be the Geminids, an intense and bright shower that peaks in mid-December, offering the possibility of seeing hundreds of shooting stars every hour. It’s just one of nine major meteor showers that grace the skies throughout the year, and details on when they’ll appear in the Northern Hemisphere are listed below – so mark your 2026 calendar for those.
The next big meteor shower: the Geminids
The Geminids are active from approximately December 4 to 17, peaking during the night of December 13 to 14. They have a sharp peak, so the night of the 13th is the best time to observe the sky.
The Geminids are the most spectacular meteor shower of the year. In addition to producing up to 120 or even 150 meteors per hour at its peak, this meteor shower is also the brightest and most colorful of the year.
Geminids are bright, slow-moving meteors that often have yellow tones, but they can be a range of other colors, including green, blue, white, red or orange. And unlike most meteors, which are caused by comet debris, the Geminids are the remains of an asteroid.
On the night the Geminids peak, their radiant constellation Gemini will be above the horizon all night and will peak around 2 a.m. local time, so the meteors will be visible most of the night.
That same night, the moon will be about 32% illuminated and rise around 1:30 a.m. in the eastern United States, so if you’re viewing this shower shortly after midnight, the moonlight won’t interfere with your viewing experience.
How to observe a meteor shower
You don’t need any special equipment to view a meteor shower. In fact, using devices such as binoculars or telescopes prevents you from seeing meteors, because they move too fast to be seen through the lenses of such equipment. All you need are your eyes, a dark sky with little or no moonlight, and a location away from excessive light, as moonlight and light pollution can blot out shooting stars.
Note that the moon appears (rises) and disappears (sets) in the night sky at different times depending on the time zone you are in. All moonrise/moonset times in this article are for the eastern United States. You can use tools like the Time and Date Moonrise/Moonset Calendar or this tool from the US Naval Observatory to check the precise moonrise/moonset times for your exact location.
